An official of the Ministry of the Economy, suspected of having transmitted confidential information to Algerian information, has been indicted. It would have been used to combat opponents of the diet.
It is a matter that is not likely to appease relationships, very tense, between France and Algeria. A civil servant working at the Ministry of Economy and Finance was indicted on December 19 for facts under the espionage, including “Intelligence with a foreign power” and “Delivery to a foreign power of information undermining the fundamental interests of the nation”, revealed The ParisianWednesday March 12, 2025.
Since placed under judicial supervision, the suspect has been a 56-year-old man and having dual Franco-Algerian nationality. Officing as a sector manager at the Central Administration’s Digital Administration (SDNAC) of the Ministry of the Economy, he is suspected of having provided confidential information, to which he had access by his function, to a member of the external intelligence services of Algeria (DDSE).
The information communicated is essentially summed up with details on the identity, the location and the situation of Algerian nationals present in France. Most targeted people are opponents of the Algerian president’s regime, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, underlines the Ile -de -France newspaper: politicians, journalists or even “influencers” with an aura on the Algerian diaspora. Other targets of these spy maneuvers are two Algerians under an international arrest warrant for terrorism, another person who has filed a complaint as a high Algerian ranking or even refugees completes AFP. These individuals have, for some, have “victims of violence, death threats or attempted kidnapping” according to a source close to the investigation in Parisianbut no link could be clearly established between these events and spy measures.
Aid in the fight against opponents of the regime
Not only to provide internal information to the Ministry of Economy, the Bercy official has also sent confidential information from the French Immigration and Integration Office (OFII), an organization affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior. These details focused on “the personal or administrative situation” of spying Algerian nationals, some being asylum seekers or residence permits in France. Information likely to interest the Algerian regime, in particular intelligence and security services, while several actions have already been carried out against opponents of Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Some are directly reporting to state services such as the incarceration of the critical writer of the Boualem Sansal regime. Others seem to be on the initiative of fervent supporters of the Algerian president, such as calls for violence against opponents to power relayed by Algerian influencers residing in France, like “Doualemn” or “Zazou Yassef” which were condemned by French justice.
Spying facts are already retained against the Bercy official, but the investigations have not yet made it possible to demonstrate that the information sent to the Algerian spy was classified. The prosecution has not retained, for the time being, the head of “subtraction of national defense secrecy” against the suspect. The fact remains that the information transmitted is confidential in nature.
An accomplice arrested, an Algerian protected spy
If the official working in Bercy has been arrested and indicted, he is not the only one. A 46 -year -old woman, employed as a social worker at the offi and maintaining an intimate relationship with the suspect, was also arrested and indicted for “violation of professional secrecy” on February 7. She is suspected of having provided information from the offi to her friend who then transmitted them to his contact with Algerian information.
The latter was also identified: it is a member of the Directorate of Documentation and External Security who officially works as a project manager at the Algerian Consulate in France. A “diplomatic coverage” which protects it and prevents it from being arrested. According to the tracks, he managed to obtain the cooperation of the Bercy official using different techniques, including intimidation, manipulation and patriotic affect.