Serbia's security services are monitoring the mobile phones of journalists and activists critical of the government using illegally installed spyware, Amnesty International claimed on Monday. Experts from the human rights group were able to detect data-transmitting software on the devices of 13 activists and journalists,

Amnesty International calls for the Serbian government to end these surveillance practices: Serbian authorities must stop using highly invasive spyware and provide effective remedy to victims of unlawful targeted surveillance and hold those responsible for the violations to account.

Serbian authorities have rejected the claims they used forensic tools from Israeli company Cellebrite and bespoke spyware for illegal surveillance, calling them "nonsensical". #EuropeNews

Amnesty said it found NoviSpy, an Android spyware linked to Serbian intelligence, on the phones of several members of Serbian civil society following police stops.

As tech companies make it harder to infect phones remotely, governments are using physical access to the devices of activists to insert spyware programs.