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 a Kurdish politician and activists.

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that the indictment against 32-year-old Mehmet Fatih S., whose full name wasn’t given in line with privacy laws, was filed in a Hamburg court.

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

They say he focused on a Germany-based politician who at the time headed a Kurdish group in Germany, NAV-DEM, and now is part of the leadership of a Brussels-based Kurdish umbrella group, KCDK-E. He also allegedly photographed a Kurdish group’s demonstration in Bremen in May 2016.