Algeria’s Brotherhood covering up Qatari spying

Shaimaa Hefzi

The action plans of the Muslim Brotherhood are usually concocted in Qatar and Turkey. Movement branches in other countries then take these plans and start implementing them. The branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria is no exception.

Nonetheless, Algeria’s Muslim Brotherhood tries to avoid the mistakes committed by the Brotherhood branches in Egypt and Tunisia.

On February 20, the manager of the Qatari communications company, Ooredoo, was sacked after being accused of spying for Qatar. This put the Brotherhood in a tough test.

Crisis

The crisis came to the surface when Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, ordered the sacking of the manager of the company in the light of a tip about some of the legal violations of the manager who was a German national.

Among the violations, the manager of the company had sacked 900 Algerian employees, without any legal basis.

New plan

The Qatari communications company raised suspicions in Algeria after it made profits up to $72 million, attracted 14 million clients and grew by 117% in the past two years.

Ooredoo is one of the most outstanding cell phone service providers in Algeria. The company offers around 25% of all cell phone services in Algeria. The clients in Algeria make up 12% of all the clients of the company around the world. The company’s capital also makes up 11% of overall Qatari investments outside Qatar.

According to local Algerian media, Ooredoo has been trying to spy on government officials in Algeria since 2014.

Spying by investing

In July 2014, an Algerian newspaper published a report in which it accused the Qatari company of spying on Algerians and passing information onto some western intelligence agencies.

According to the newspaper, the company is implementing two new projects. Nevertheless, it said, the company uses these projects in conducting major spying operations in Algeria.