Agency Report –
German prosecutors on Thursday said they have filed charges against a man suspected of spying on opposition activists on behalf of Morocco.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses the man, named as Youssef El A. under Germany privacy laws, of spying since January 2022 on supporters of the Hirak movement, a Moroccan opposition group.
The charges were filed before the Higher Regional Court in Dusseldorf in May.
The man was arrested in Spain in December before he was extradited to Germany, where he has been held in pre-trial detention since January, according to prosecutors in the western city of Karlsruhe.
An accomplice commissioned by Morocco’s DGED foreign intelligence service is said to have supported the accused’s espionage activities and passed on the information gathered to senior officers, prosecutors say.
He was detained by German federal criminal police in November 2022 and has been sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of one year and nine months.
