SERBIA’S secret service and police have been spying on journalists and opposition activists by installing spyware on their mobile phones, Amnesty International revealed today.

The watchdog’s report, backed by testimonies of those who claim their phones have been hacked in recent months, said spy software was used to unlock phones, capture covert screenshots and copy contact lists, which were then uploaded to a government-controlled server.

It said the Serbian police and the Security Information Agency (BIA) used the spyware to infect devices while their owners were detained or interviewed by police.

“Our investigation reveals how Serbian authorities have deployed surveillance technology and digital repression tactics as instruments of wider state control and repression directed against civil society,” Amnesty International Europe deputy director Dinushika Dissanayake said.

Serbia’s police said the report is “absolutely incorrect,” but said that “the forensic tool is used in the same way by other police forces” globally.

BIA said on its website that it “works exclusively in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Serbia.”

“Therefore, we are not even able to comment on nonsensical allegations from their text, just as we do not normally comment on similar content,” it said.

The report comes as widespread protests, led by students and activists, have erupted in the country following the collapse of a concrete canopy at a rail station last month that killed 15 people.

Many have blamed corruption and nepotism among state officials which led to sloppy work on the building.

President Aleksandar Vucic has blamed Western intelligence services, NGOs and foreign media for conducting a “hybrid warfare” against him and his country by illegally financing the protests.

NGO group Belgrade Centre for Security Policy strongly condemned the authorities’ misuse of digital technologies for surveillance.

It demanded an immediate, transparent and independent investigation into the allegations reported by Amnesty.

The group also called for the prosecution of those responsible within the police and the BIA.

“In a country where civil protests are growing in scale and discontent with the regime is becoming louder, these practices represent a direct attack on fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and the right of association,” it said.