Mohamed Bellahrach, 59, from Nador, is the Moroccan spy who is said to be at the heart of the corruption scandal in the European Parliament of which Morocco is accused. At the Directorate General of Studies and Documentation (DGED), the Moroccan intelligence service, he is known by the code name M118.
Part of the spy TV series Citadel, the second most expensive production of Prime Video (Amazon) after The Lord of the Rings, was filmed in Morocco.
President Pedro Sanchez dismissed former Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzales Laya a week after Moroccan authorities requested it on July 2, 2021. The diplomat was seen by the kingdom as responsible for the entry into Spain of Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front, under a false identity.
Morocco has appealed the decision of the Madrid court that rejected its complaint against Ignacio Cembrero, whom it accuses of defamation. The Spanish journalist had stated that he had been spied on by Morocco using Pegasus.
The French justice system on Wednesday rejected Morocco’s defamation complaint against several French media that revealed the espionage by certain countries, including Morocco, using the Pegasus spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO.
Morocco would be one of the countries that have acquired a new Israeli-made spyware similar to Pegasus used to target journalists and political figures in several countries.
Morocco is not abandoning the case against the Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero, who accuses it of having spied on him using Pegasus. The lawyer for the kingdom, Ernesto Díaz-Bastién López, has announced his intention to appeal the recent decision of the Madrid court in favor of Cembrero.
The Court of First Instance in Madrid has rejected Morocco’s defamation complaint against journalist Ignacio Cembrero who accused the kingdom of spying on him with the Israeli software Pegasus.
The action and espionage series Citadel by brothers Joe and Anthony Russo was partly shot in Morocco. Its first episodes will soon be available on the Prime Video platform.
Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero responded on Friday to his fourth legal proceeding for a complaint from Morocco that he had accused of espionage using Pegasus. His lawyer denounces "harassment" by the kingdom seeking to "silence" his client.
A new ultra-secure phone should be made available to the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, after the espionage allegations against Morocco. The state services are on the move.
Moroccans traveling to Qatar to support the Atlas Lions at the World Cup starting on November 20 will have to install the event’s official app, Hayya, and the Covis tracking app, Ehteraz, on their smartphones. These two apps would be spyware working for the Qatari authorities.