Corruption Scandal Widens: Three More Moroccan MPs Face Prosecution

Two parliamentarians from the National Rally of Independents (RNI) and one from the Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) are being prosecuted for corruption and embezzlement of public funds, following complaints from associations for the protection of public funds, reports Assabah. The persons concerned reject these accusations, claiming to be victims of a smear campaign by two of their political opponents and these associations.

The head of the PAM parliamentary group is being prosecuted by the court of first instance of Marrakech for matters related to public contracts as the former president of the municipality. He "is not being prosecuted on the basis of a report drawn up by the general inspection of the Ministry of the Interior or by the Court of Auditors," observed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, the national coordinator of the PAM collegiate leadership, at the end of the party’s congress in Bouznika.

The Constitutional Court will ask the House of Representatives to rule on the forfeiture of the mandate of the three parliamentarians. In total, 20 deputies, belonging to the different parliamentary groups of the majority and the opposition, are being prosecuted in court for corruption and embezzlement of public funds, on the basis of reports from the general inspection of the Ministry of the Interior or the Court of Auditors.