Spy suspect silent during 3.5-hour interrogation over alleged Morocco data leak

Moroccan man Abderrahim El M., on trial in the Netherlands for an alleged espionage case involving the Moroccan secret service, was interrogated for 3.5 hours by the Dutch National Criminal Investigation Department.

Questioned about his trips to the Kingdom, where investigators suspect he took Dutch state secret documents, the spy suspect gave no answers. He had previously worked at the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV).

The Rotterdam man was arrested in October 2023 at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. He was heading to Morocco, allegedly carrying state secrets in his luggage, according to investigators. The Dutch Prosecution Service suspects that this wouldn’t have been his first trip to Morocco with similar documents, alleging that the Moroccan secret service would have paid for his hotel stays and flights.

During the interrogation that lasted several hours, Abderrahim El M. was asked about the «thick file, from notepads in his handwriting that allegedly contained Moroccan contacts to his flights that were allegedly booked by a travel agency in Rabat», reported Dutch newspaper ED on Monday.

15 to 20 witnesses to be heard

The suspect denied he spied for Morocco, but he refused to answer any other questions. His lawyer, Bart Nooitgedagt, said that his client did not «feel safe».

It will probably take months before the substantive hearing against the Rotterdam interpreter and analyst actually takes place, the same source reported, adding that his lawyer wants 15 to 20 witnesses to be heard in this case.

«My client has always been an unprecedentedly loyal servant of Dutch security. He is being framed in this case», he said at the start of the trial. «The top of justice, the top of Dutch politics, they know... They know...», he claimed.

It is worth noting that during the first hearing of the spy suspect on February 7, the Dutch public prosecutor stated that El M. would have been in possession of nearly 1,000 classified documents, some of which he would have allegedly shared with the Moroccan intelligence agency, Direction Générale des Études et de la Documentation (DGED).

Investigators found an astonishing 300 data carriers at his home, containing a staggering 65 terabytes of data (roughly equivalent to 11.5 billion A4 pages).

Dutch intelligence and security services claim to have discovered the names of four DGED employees who allegedly had contacts with El M., and these contacts would also have been found on his phone.