While tensions between Algeria and France have not decreased since the beginning of the year, a new case has just been revealed by several media, of which The Parisian and AFP. An official of the Ministry of Economy and Finance was recently indicted in Paris, suspected of having delivered information on opponents of the Algerian regime living in France, thanks to the presumed competition of a social worker from the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII), under investigation on February 7. This Bercy employee was indicted on December 19 and placed under judicial supervision, AFP of concordant sources learned on Wednesday March 12.
Suspicions since June 2024
The case dates back to June 2024, when the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI) was alerted to a relationship between a Bercy employee and an Algerian official. In November, the investigations were entrusted to two investigating judges for “intelligence with a foreign power, delivery to a foreign power of information on fundamental interest to the nation, subtraction and disclosure of national secret-defense by its depositary, provocation to a crime of betrayal or espionage not followed by effect, and violation of professional secrecy”.
The official is now continued “for intelligence with a foreign power”, “delivery to a foreign information of information on fundamental interest to the nation”, “exercise of activities to learn about the fundamental interests of the nation for a foreign power”, confirmed the Paris prosecutor’s office to AFP.
The 56 -year -old man is suspected of having been “in regular contact with a person of Algerian nationality working at the Consulate of Algeria in Créteil”, who would have used intimidation methods towards him, and “to have transmitted to him personal information and on asylum requests” concerning Algerians, and in particular “notorious opponents of the political regime in place”, specified the public prosecutor.
Information on opponents of the diet
Solicited by several media, including AFP, the lawyer for the employee of Bercy, Me Sipan Ohanians, affirmed that his client was “victim of a campaign of threats and manipulation of a foreign power that tightened the vice around him”.
According to a source close to the investigation, the Algerian who had been the Créteil’s Algeria Consulate since the end of 2022 was the information sponsor: he benefited according to this source from a “coverage”. According to information from Parisian Who revealed the case, he was a member of the Directorate of Documentation and External Security (DDSE), the external intelligence service of Algeria. He was not indicted at this stage and left for Algeria. Still according to The Parisianhe could not be arrested because he was “protected by diplomatic immunity” because of his functions as “project manager at the Algerian consulate in France”.
According to the source close to the investigation contacted by AFP, this agent asked for information from Bercy’s employee on Algerian nationals, including known opponents such as Amir Boukhors and Mohamed Larbi Zitout, both under an international arrest warrant for terrorism, or even influential personalities such as the influencer Chawki Benzehra, but also a refugee journalist, Algerian having filed a complaint in France against a general.
These people have, for “some”, victims of violence, death threats or attempted kidnapping, “said the source close to the investigation, without giving more elements on the possible causal link.
An “intimate relationship” with an employee of the French immigration office
How did the Bercy official get this information? According to a source close to the file, he had established an “intimate relationship” with a social worker from the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII), which he asked for that she consults confidential software and obtaining information. The forties was charged on February 7 for violation of professional secrecy, according to the prosecution. During the investigations, she assured that she had affected any counterpart, according to the source close to the file. Contacted, his lawyer Fabien Arakelian did not wish to speak. After Le Figarothe suspect was laid down several months ago and a dismissal procedure started.
Investigations are continuing and according to The Parisian, have not yet shown that the sensitive information that the Bercy official has transmitted to Algeria were classified.