The trial of an Egyptian-German employee in the media office of Chancellor Angela Merkel began in Berlin on Tuesday, on suspicion that he has been spying for many years for the Egyptian intelligence.
It is suspected that Amin K. He transferred information to the Egyptian General Intelligence Service between 2010 and 2019, taking advantage of his distinguished position in this office, in which he has worked since 1999.
The 66-year-old mainly worked in the visiting department of the German Federal Information Office, which is specifically responsible for communicating about the chancellery’s activities.
According to the indictment, he provided general observations about how the media dealt with domestic and international politics related to Egypt, followed up on requests from Egyptian intelligence agents and attempted to recruit another spy.
He is also suspected of providing the Egyptian General Intelligence Service with the names of five media office colleagues who were born in Syria.
In exchange for the information provided, he hoped to benefit from preferential treatment from the Egyptian authorities and to help his mother obtain her right to the Egyptian retirement pension.
He was sometimes invited to official receptions, for example to mark the farewell of the Egyptian ambassador to Germany in 2019, according to the German prosecutor’s office in mid-November in the indictment.
A hearing is scheduled for another two days, with a ruling due in early March. The German Internal Intelligence Report indicates that the Egyptian Foreign Intelligence Service and the Internal Intelligence Service are active in Germany.
In particular, they aim to collect information on opponents of the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi residing in the country, especially sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been banned since 2013 in Egypt.
The army has ruled Egypt since 1952, except for the short period that followed the popular protest movement between January and February 2011 that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.
