A man was arrested by German police at Frankfurt International Airport on Thursday on suspicion of spying for the security services.
The man was initially detained in Spain on December 1, 2024, on the basis of a European arrest warrant and has been transferred to for prosecution.
What is the detained man accused of?
The Moroccan national, named only as Youssef El A., is “strongly suspected” of spying on members of the Moroccan opposition protest movement Al-Hirak al-Shaabi (“Popular Movement”) since January 2022, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors believe him to be an accomplice of Mohamed A., another Moroccan national who was arrested near the western German city of in November 2022 and found guilty of spying on supporters of the Hirak movement in Germany in August 2023.
Mohamed A. was found to have passed on information about two German-Moroccans to Moroccan secret service (DGED) officers in return for airplane tickets and other travel expenses worth around €5,000 ($5,155).
He was handed a suspended jail sentence of one year and nine months and was also ordered to pay a fine of €4,300 ($4,600).
Who is he accused of spying on?
The emerged in northern Morocco’s Rif region in 2016 following anger over the death of a fishmonger crushed by a garbage truck as he tried to recover swordfish seized by police.
The incident sparked protests demanding greater investment in Morocco’s marginalized Berber region, leading to dozens of arrests.
mf/rc (AFP, dpa)
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