PARIS: French prosecutors have placed a finance ministry employee under formal investigation on suspicion of spying for Algeria, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Thursday, at a time of mounting political tensions between France and its former colony.
The employee is accused of handing details on Algerian asylum seekers, including known opponents of the incumbent Algerian administration, to an Algerian contact working at the Algerian consulate in the Paris suburb of Creteil.
The employee was placed under formal investigation in December. In France, being put under formal investigation means there is serious or consistent evidence that points to likely involvement of a suspect in a crime. It does not imply guilt and it does not necessarily lead to a trial.
The Creteil consulate didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The French finance ministry declined to comment. The Algerian Embassy in Paris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The same probe also led to the placing under formal investigation of a social worker at the French Office for Immigration and Integration. The woman is accused of sharing asylum seekers’ confidential details and breaching rules around professional secrecy.
The immigration office said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Ties between Paris and Algiers have deteriorated in recent months after French President Emmanuel Macron recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. That decision angered Algiers.
As the diplomatic feuding has escalated, France last month threatened to review a decades-old agreement that makes it easier for Algerian citizens to move to France unless Algeria agrees to take back those the French authorities wish to deport.
French finance ministry employee suspected of spying for Algeria, says prosecutor
https://arab.news/rn52q
French finance ministry employee suspected of spying for Algeria, says prosecutor
- The employee is accused of handing details on Algerian asylum seekers
- The same probe also led to the placing under formal investigation of a social worker at the French Office for Immigration and Integration
Syria’s Kurds hail ‘positive impact’ of Turkiye peace talks
- “The peace initiative in Turkiye has had a direct impact on northern and eastern Syria,” said Elham Ahmad
- “We want a dialogue process with Turkiye, a dialogue that we understand as Kurds in Syria”
ISTANBUL: Efforts to broker peace between Turkiye and the Kurdish militant group PKK have had a “positive impact” on Syria’s Kurds who also want dialogue with Ankara, one of its top officials said Saturday.
Earlier this year, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) ended its four-decade armed struggle against Turkiye at the urging of its jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan, shifting its focus to a democratic political struggle for the rights of Turkiye’s Kurdish minority.
The ongoing process has raised hopes among Kurds across the region, notably in Syria where the Kurds control swathes of territory in the north and northeast.
“The peace initiative in Turkiye has had a direct impact on northern and eastern Syria,” said Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast.
“We want a dialogue process with Turkiye, a dialogue that we understand as Kurds in Syria... We want the borders between us to be opened,” she said, speaking by video link to an Istanbul peace conference organized by Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish opposition DEM party.
Speaking in Kurdish, she hailed Turkiye for initiating the peace moves, but said releasing Ocalan — who has led the process from his cell on Imrali prison island near Istanbul where he has been serving life in solitary since 1999 — would speed things up.
“We believe that Abdullah Ocalan being released will let him play a much greater role... that this peace and resolution process will happen faster and better.”
She also hailed Ankara for its sensitive approach to dialogue with the new regime in Damascus that emerged after the ousting of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad a year ago.
“The Turkish government has a dialogue and a relationship with the Syrian government. They also have open channels with us. We see that there is a careful approach to this matter,” she said.
Turkiye has long been hostile to the Kurdish SDF force that controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as an extension of PKK, and pushing for the US-backed force to integrate into the Syrian military and security apparatus.
Although a deal was reached to that end in March, its terms were never implemented.
“In this historic process, as the Middle East is being reorganized, Turkiye has a very important role. Peace in both countries — within Turkish society, Kurdish society and Arab society.. will impact the entire Middle East,” Ahmad said.
Syria’s Kurdish community believed coexistence was “fundamental” and did not want to see the nation divided, she said.
“We do not support the division of Syria or any other country. Such divisions pave the way for new wars. That is why we advocate for peace.”
