Former and current police officers from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) were placed in police custody on Wednesday.
They are accused of having delivered confidential information to journalist Alex Jordanov, author of a book-investigation on the DGSI.
The hearings, still in progress in the premises of the DGSI, are part of a case of "compromising national defense secrets", a source familiar with the matter told AFP.
The police are suspected of having "fed" Alex Jordanov, also in police custody, who published in 2019 "The wars in the shadows of the DGSI" (Nouveau Monde editions).
In his book, the journalist reveals "the successes" and "failures" of domestic intelligence in the fight against terrorism through the stories of several officers of the DGSI.
According to Le Point magazine, which revealed the information, his home was searched for several hours on Monday.
The home of journalist #AlexJordanov was also raided for 7 hours on Monday by #DGSI agents... Reason invoked?
The compromise of “secret defence.
“Two years after the publication of the #book?
2/2 https://t.co/6FPP0dgL9b via @LePoint
— Baudouin Eschapasse (@eschapasse) June 23, 2022
For two years, this French journalist collected the confidences of agents of the DGSI.
How do they eavesdrop and stalk their targets?
What means do they have to thwart the plans of the Islamic State on our territory?
How do they envisage the outcome of the conflict between France and the clandestine forces of Daesh?
Alex Jordanov's survey "answers all these questions", underlines the weekly.
The journalist had already been heard in February 2020 in free hearing by the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP) of the Paris judicial police for suspicion of violation of defense secrecy.
Alex Jordanov was briefly taken hostage in 2004 in Iraq while working at the CAPA agency and producing a subject for Canal +.