Germany files espionage charges against alleged Turkish spy

BERLIN

German prosecutors have filed espionage charges against a man accused of spying for Turkish intelligence on Kurdish movements since 2015.

Federal prosecutors stated on June 21 that the indictment against 32-year-old Mehmet Fatih S., whose full name wasn’t given in line with privacy laws, has been filed in a Hamburg court.

The Turkish national was arrested in December. Prosecutors say he worked for a Turkish intelligence service since 2013 and was tasked in September 2015 or earlier with snooping on Kurds in Germany.

According to the prosecutor’s office, he earned nearly 30,000 euros for his spying activities. 

They say he focused on one of the members of the Germany Democratic Kurdish Society Center (NAV-DEM), a group known for its close links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and his family in autumn of 2015. 

The indictment said the suspect was in contact with the family of the man whom he was allegedly spying to gather information. 

According to the prosecutor’s office, the aforementioned Kurdish man is now a member of European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCDK-E), described by German domestic intelligence as being the PKK’s Europe branch. 

Mehmet Fatih S. is also alleged to have photographed a Kurdish group’s demonstration in Bremen in May 2016.