German police training Saudi secret service: TV

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, Jul 20, IRNA -- Germany's federal police are also involved in training Saudi secret service officers, according to German public broadcaster ARD.

Members of the Saudi intelligence agency took part in at least three training courses last year, the investigative report said.

Documents have very precisely recorded every individual training step as Saudi secret service officers had been trained in coping with situations like demonstrations or uprisings.

The latest report comes only weeks after German television also uncovered that German federal police had trained Saudi security forces in how to crack down on pro-democracy protests.

According to internal documents, among them contracts and pictures, German police had instructed Saudi security forces in how to confront demonstrations and unrest.

In one video image, German police showed how houses could be raided and searched.

The Berlin government has repeatedly defended its highly controversial security cooperation with Saudi Arabia, claiming it focused only on training Saudi border police guards.

Germany has reportedly allocated 20 million euros for the program.

There are also plans to reportedly boost the size of the German federal police office in Riyadh from currently seven to 65 people, making it the second largest deployment of German federal police troopers abroad after Afghanistan.

The German security cooperation with the Saudi regime had been kept top-secret until the German press exposed it in early April.