A Moroccan, identified as Youssef El A., was arrested on Wednesday at Frankfurt airport, the German federal prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday. He is suspected of having spied since January 2022 on activists of the Hirak, a protest movement born in the Rif region, according to AFP.
According to the prosecutor’s press release, Youssef El A. would have acted in collaboration with Mohamed A., another Moroccan sentenced on August 31, 2023 to one year and nine months in prison by a Düsseldorf court for similar facts. Mohamed A. allegedly provided information to the Moroccan secret services in exchange for plane tickets for his personal travel.
Before his arrest in Germany, Youssef El A. was in Spain, where he was arrested on December 1, 2024 on the basis of a European arrest warrant. After six weeks of detention, the Spanish authorities handed him over to German justice. Presented to a judge on Thursday, he was placed in pre-trial detention.
The Hirak, the movement at the origin of the events, emerged in October 2016 after the tragic death of Mouhcine Fikri, a fish seller crushed in a dumpster while trying to recover his seized merchandise. This tragedy triggered demonstrations denouncing the “marginalization” of the region and demanding its development. These mobilizations led to numerous arrests in Morocco.
Morocco
