Germany convicts ex-public employee of spying for Egypt

A court in Berlin has convicted a former employee of the German government’s press office of spying for a foreign intelligence agency, the German Press Agency has reported. The man, identified only as Amin K, was given a suspended sentenced of one year and nine months in prison.

According to a spokeswoman for the court, the defence had called for a “moderate” sentence. She pointed out that the defendant can appeal against the judgement.

Amin K is a German citizen of Egyptian origin and was working in the visitor service at the Press and Information Office of the German Federal Government from 1999. He was accused of supporting employees of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service (GIS) to obtain information since July 2010 at the latest. German investigators said that he had no access to classified information.

It is suspected that he has been giving public information in the form of notes on German domestic and foreign policy and news related to Egypt in the German media to various intelligence personnel working in the Egyptian Embassy.

The German public prosecution service indicated that during the last three years of the defendant’s work in the Federal Press Office, he was in constant contact with a man accredited as an advisor at the Egyptian Embassy in Berlin. This official was suspected of being an employee of the GIS, and communicated with him in a “conspiratorial” manner.

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