WARSAW — The leader of the Polish opposition Civic Platform party’s 2019 election campaign says his phone was hacked 33 times by Israeli spyware tool Pegasus and used by the government to “destabilize” his party’s plans.

Although the government immediately denied involvement, the case is the third such revelation within a week and is likely to exacerbate a clash between Brussels and Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) over democratic backsliding.

The probe into the phone of Senator Krzysztof Brejza was conducted by Researchers at the Toronto-based Citizen Lab, a watchdog group, and reported by the Associated Press.

Citizen Lab also found that the phones of prominent opposition lawyer Roman Giertych and prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek had been hacked using Pegasus.

The malware, developed by Israeli firm NSO Group, is sold mainly to government entities and has sparked fears from democracy campaigners that it’s being used to attack political opponents.

“I definitely trust the Polish services and what the Polish services say, and the services clearly say that the Pegasus system is not used by the Polish services,” Deputy Defense Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz told Polish state radio on Friday. “It is not used to follow or investigate anyone in our