On its website, this agency touts its “unique expertise in investigation, political analysis, public affairs consulting and strategic communications” and says it helps its clients manage their public image and reputation, but also to analyze political risks or conduct international investigations.
A thousand Europeans concerned
In fact, according to Mediapart, the private Swiss agency would have sent between 2017 and 2020 to the Abu Dhabi intelligence services the names of a thousand Europeans and more than 400 organizations supposedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in 18 European countries. , including more than 200 people and 120 organizations in France, describing them, often wrongly, as Islamists close to the Muslim Brotherhood.
This new affair began in 2023 when Mediapart published a series of articles, in partnership with the European consortium European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), accusing Mario Brero and ALP Services of working on behalf of Emirati intelligence.
On the menu, according to the investigation site, transmission of information to an Emirati intelligence agent, dissemination of information to harm adversaries of the Emirates, publication of false articles attacking Qatar and movements linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, etc. Among them, this famous list of hundreds of names, including more than 200 French citizens and 120 organizations.
Benoît Hamon, Jean-Luc Mélenchon or Rokhaya Diallo spied on?
The list would contain among others, according to Mediapart, the former socialist presidential candidate Benoît Hamon, the deputy mayor of Marseille and former senator Samia Ghali, the La France insoumise party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the National Research Center scientist (CNRS) or the author and anti-racist activist Rokhaya Diallo.
The latter filed a complaint in August, and according to two sources close to the case, the Paris prosecutor’s office entrusted a preliminary investigation a few months ago to the Brigade for the Repression of Personal Delinquency (BRDP).
“Justice must investigate such methods. In addition to involving illegal use of personal data, they unfairly associate Rokhaya Diallo with a group (Muslim Brotherhood) with which she has absolutely no connection”, causing “reputational damage” and “harassment”, worries her lawyer, Me Vincent Brengarth.
A Médiapart journalist “left to pasture”?
Another complaint was filed in mid-January in Paris by Mediapart and one of its journalists, the investigative site announced.
According to a Source close to the matter, the BRDP is also seized of this complaint aimed, according to the new president of Mediapart Carine Fouteau, at “denouncing the registration which we consider illegal […] of one of our journalists, wrongly assimilated to a communicator of the Muslim Brotherhood and, in doing so, handed over to the Emirati secret services.”
“This listing unduly harms her security and reputation, as well as those of the newspaper,” according to her.
“Mediapart has, as part of its complaint, provided the Paris prosecutor’s office with an internal document from ALP Services which lists the French people whose names were transmitted to the UAE authorities,” clarified Carine Fouteau, saying Mediapart “on the principle , ready to cooperate with justice in order to contribute to the manifestation of the truth and prevent, whatever the country, such events from happening again. »
“I was horrified”
In Créteil, after another complaint filed by Sihem Souid, one of Qatar’s main lobbyists in France, another preliminary investigation was opened at the end of October 2023, indicated the Créteil prosecutor’s office.
“I was horrified to learn that the UAE had overseen a destabilization operation, using an intelligence and espionage company to attack Qatar through me,” said Sihem Souid, denouncing a “tracking of (his) private life”.
His lawyer, Me Céline Astolfe, requested the appointment of an investigating judge to shed light “on the sponsors, the perpetrators and the objectives” in the face of “practices of incredible violence and seriousness”.
In Switzerland, finally, another Source close to the matter indicated that the public prosecutor of the Confederation had been investigating Mario Brero, a relative and ALP Services, since December, after reports from several administrations and complaints from Islamologist Tariq Ramadan and the Belgian environmentalist Minister of Climate and Environment, Zakia Khattabi.
Asked, the latter’s office indicated that the minister denies any link with the Muslim Brotherhood, denouncing “fanciful and false allegations”. Mario Brero’s lawyer did not immediately react, nor did the Emirati authorities.
