A Dutch court has dealt a significant blow to prosecutors in a case widely described as one of the Netherlands' biggest security scandals. An employee of the country's counterterrorism agency received a sentence of just 20 months for taking state documents - a fraction of what the prosecution had demanded.
Prosecutors argued the man had secretly been spying for Morocco and pushed for a 12-year prison term, "Hvylya" reports, citing Politico.
The case laid bare the core difficulty of prosecuting espionage in the Netherlands. Proving that a suspect deliberately served a foreign government - the key threshold under the new law - turned out to be beyond what the evidence could support.
Youssef Ait Daoud, who leads the Netherlands' newly created police unit dedicated to countering foreign espionage, did not comment on the case specifically but acknowledged the evidentiary challenge as a central obstacle in his team's work.
While Russia dominates the conversation about foreign interference in Europe, intelligence agencies consistently warn about threats from other states as well. When it comes to transnational repression - governments targeting dissidents and diaspora communities abroad - the list of countries involved extends well beyond Moscow.
The ruling came this week as the Netherlands ramps up enforcement under its new espionage framework.
Also read: Russia Eavesdrops on Africa and Middle East From the Heart of Europe, Western Officials Say.