Alleged Moroccan Spy Extradited to Germany from Spain

Under a European warrant issued by the German judicial authorities, Youssef El Assrouti was arrested in Spain on December 1st. Accompanied by two police officers, he was extradited on Wednesday, January 15, to Frankfurt by plane. Once at his destination, he was handed over to officers of the Federal Criminal Police Office who presented him before a federal investigating judge, according to a statement published on Thursday by the federal prosecutor’s office and reported by El Confidencial.

The German judge "strongly suspects" Youssef of carrying out espionage activities in Germany on behalf of the Directorate General of Studies and Documentation (DGED), the Moroccan foreign intelligence service, since January 2022. The suspect was monitoring Rif nationalists exiled in Germany. One of them had posted photos of Youssef participating in demonstrations in Germany in support of the Rif claims.

The German judicial authorities add that Youssef El Assrouti had an accomplice: Mohamed A., arrested in November 2022, near Cologne, for having provided the DGED with information on two German-Moroccans sympathizing with Rif nationalism. In return, he received some 5,000 euros in plane tickets and other expenses. He was sentenced in August 2023 to 21 months’ probation and a fine of 4,300 euros.

The handover of Youssef El Assrouti to the German authorities coincided with the meeting in Rabat between Javier Antonio Susín Bercero, the Commissioner General for Information of the Spanish National Police, and Abdellatif Hammouchi, the head of the Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) of Morocco. "Spain has been spared from dangerous terrorist attacks thanks to the decisive and very reliable information provided by the police services" of Morocco, the Spanish official said, hailing the good police cooperation between the two countries.