The case against the alleged NCTV-Mol, the official who was arrested in 2023 for leaking state secrets, extends to the highest level in Morocco. The Rotterdam court wants to as a witness Yassine Mansouri, boss of the foreign intelligence service DGD and confidant of King Mohammed VI. According to experts, that request can have diplomatic consequences and put the relationship between the Netherlands and Morocco under tension.
The suspect official, Abderrahim El M., who worked as an analyst at Terrorism coordinator NCTV, is said to have had direct contact with Mansouri, according to the Public Prosecution Service. The court therefore decided earlier that four Moroccan intelligence employees, to whom El M. Staatsheime would have leaked, should be heard. One of these four protagonists, it now appears, is Mansouri.
As a terrorism analyst, he was in a crucial position of information collection in the Netherlands. As an intelligence chef you lick your fingers, if you can bind someone like that
It is one of the most powerful men in Morocco, says Morocco expert Paolo de Mas. “He belongs to the inner circle of the king.” The MAS calls it “very striking” that the NCTV would have had conversations with Mansouri, but does not consider it excluded. “As a terrorism analyst, he was in a crucial position of information collection in the Netherlands. As an intelligence chef you lick your fingers when you can bind someone like that.”
The attempt by the court to hear Mansouri and other intelligence officers about the leakage of state secrets, the MAS considers ‘completely hopeless’. According to him, it can have repercussions for ties with Morocco. “A similar matter in France has previously led to temporary hypothermia of the relationship.”
When asked if, and why El M. had contact with the Moroccan espionage head, his lawyer Bart never wants to respond. “We do not make any announcements about any witnesses to hear.”
Mansouri has appeared more often in various European espionage affairs in recent years. Comes his name in the criminal investigation according to the interference in the European Parliament in Brussels. According to the Belgian, MEPs who, according to the Belgian, were bribed to influence decision -making in favor of Morocco, had a meeting with Mansouri according to the investigation.
But above all he is connected to the Pegasus scandal, says expert Paolo de Mas. Mansouri’s intelligence service is accused of having used spy software to listen to journalists, activists and politicians at home and abroad. One of the targets would have been the French President Macron. Morocco certainly denied the accusation.
The Netherlands maintains a double relationship with Morocco. On the one hand, the Netherlands depends on cooperation with Morocco in the field of fight against crime and migration. Agreements have been made with the country about the reciprocal of deprived strangers. On the other hand, there are concerns about activities of the Moroccan intelligence service in the Netherlands. The AIVD pointed last year in a report Morocco as one of the countries that spies and approaches its own Diasporage community in the Netherlands as informants. This would happen to exercise repression and for economic espionage.
Read also
Abderrahim El M. warned of Moroccan espionage, now he is suspected of it himself