France Tops List of Countries Sending Judicial Requests to Morocco in 2022

Two-thirds of these international letters rogatory were filed by four countries, namely France (83), Belgium (66), Turkey (34) and Spain (23), said Achraf El Malki, judge and head of the Extradition Unit at the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, during a seminar on the role of the public prosecutor’s office in the fight against crime, organized on Saturday at the International Book and Publishing Fair (SIEL) and reported by Hespress.

Letters rogatory in cases of money laundering (16%) and international drug trafficking (15%) are the most requested. They are followed by those requested in cases of fraud and theft (13%), the constitution of a criminal gang (9%), murders, forgery and attacks on the family system (7%), and terrorist crimes (6%).

During the year 2022, 72 international arrest warrants, including 60 issued by the courts of first instance and 12 by the courts of appeal, were issued by the Moroccan public prosecutor’s office. The Court of Appeal of Rabat issued the most warrants due to its national competence in terrorism matters. Regarding the courts, it is the Court of First Instance of Tangier that comes first, according to the data of the head of the Extradition Unit.

During the period, the Moroccan judicial authorities received a total of 49 warrants, compared to 34 in 2021, an increase of 19.6%. Most come from France, followed by the United States and Belgium, with 6 and 4 warrants respectively. As for the extradition requests issued by Morocco, they reached 75 and were mainly addressed to Spain (50), France (7) and Italy (6).