A former member of the anti-terrorism taskforce NCTV has denied divulging classified information to Morocco during his decades-long career and told judges on Monday in Rotterdam he “felt unsafe” discussing the case.

The 65-year-old addressed the court for the first time since he was arrested in October 2023. He was picked up at Schiphol airport, planning to board a flight to Morocco with, according to police, hundreds of classified documents.

“I do not feel safe,” Abderrahim el M said, claiming he was unable to discuss the case further because the hearing took place in open court.

El M faces 15 years in jail if he is convicted of giving state secrets to the Moroccan government.

According to the public prosecution service, the man, who was born in Morocco and moved to the Netherlands to attend university, was carrying a “massive number” of data storage devices when he was picked up. They contained over 100 classified documents of which 23 included state secrets, covering the period between 2007 and 2023.

He had regular contact with the head of the Moroccan counter-espionage unit who also arranged his frequent flights to Morocco, the court was told.

El M denied the charges through his lawyer Bart Nooitgedagt. Nooitgedagt argued prosecutors had shown no evidence his client gave information to a foreign security agency. “He remains a civil servant loyal to the Netherlands,” Nooitgedagt said.

A woman who was also arrested in connection with the case, and who allegedly helped El M print the documents from the AIVD and MIVD computers, maintained she did not know what M wanted with the documents. She has been released but remains a suspect.

During an earlier hearing, the prosecuting officer said the investigation would take at least a year. “There are some 46 terabytes of information on the devices, the equivalent of 11.5 billion A4 pages,” the prosecution said.