French Journalists on Trial for Alleged Blackmail Attempt Against Morocco’s King

Eric Laurent, 75, former reporter for Radio France and Le Figaro Magazine, also a columnist for France Culture, and Catherine Graciet, 48, author of books on the Maghreb, both authors in 2012 of a book on Mohammed VI banned in Morocco, "The Predator King", will be tried in Paris on Monday, January 16. The two journalists are suspected of having tried to blackmail King Mohammed VI in the summer of 2015.

Eric Laurent had a meeting with an emissary of the monarchy, lawyer Hicham Naciri, after having contacted the private secretariat of King Mohammed VI, on July 23, 2015. The meeting takes place at the bar of a Parisian palace on August 11, 2015. The journalist tells him of his intention to publish an explosive book on the sovereign. A financial agreement for the non-publication of the book will be proposed.

At the end of this first meeting, Morocco filed a complaint in Paris. This led to the opening of an investigation. August 21, 2015: new meeting between the two men in the same hotel. Status quo. A third - decisive - meeting will take place on August 27 in another hotel. Catherine Graciet enters the scene. She and Eric Laurent "sign a financial agreement of 2 million euros to withdraw the book project."

Subsequently, the two journalists will be arrested with two envelopes each containing 40,000 euros in cash. Their arrests follow the handing over by the sovereign’s emissary of the recordings of the three meetings, which will be the subject of debate at the hearing on Monday, January 16.