Marseille Drug Lord’s Extradition from Morocco Faces Legal Hurdles

Félix Bingui alias the Cat was arrested in March by the Moroccan authorities in Casablanca. He was the subject of an Interpol red notice issued by France as part of an arrest warrant issued by a judge in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) for "importing drugs in an organized gang, transport, possession, acquisition, transfer of drugs, criminal conspiracy [...], money laundering and unjustified resources". On the RMC network on March 20, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, had assured that Félix Bingui was "about to be extradited. We will do everything to make it happen." But according to a source close to the case at BFMTV, the extradition of the man considered one of the biggest drug traffickers in Marseille could take between "six and eight months".

"If he is extradited in six months, it will be because things have gone quickly," notes Philippe Ohayon, Félix Bingui’s lawyer and an expert in extradition procedures. He will add: "There is no simplified procedure with Morocco. First, the request must receive a favorable opinion from the Rabat Court of Cassation. Then, there must be an extradition decree issued by the King of Morocco. It is a sovereign country. Even when the person accepts his extradition, the procedure can take time." Since the signing by Morocco and France of a convention on April 18, 2008 in Rabat, several exchanges between the two countries "are recurrent, particularly in the fight against terrorism and the tracking of French drug traffickers who have fled to the other side of the Mediterranean," we are told.

However, a principle contained in Article 8 of this convention may prove to be an obstacle to extradition. This is Article 696-6, which specifically provides that "extradition is granted only on condition that the extradited person will not be prosecuted or convicted for an offense other than the one that motivated the extradition and prior to the surrender." Keren Saffar, Thomas Bidnic and Raphaël Chiche, all three lawyers for another Marseille drug trafficker, Kamel Meziani, sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug trafficking, see things differently. According to them, this principle of specialty "has been flouted by the French justice system, on several occasions, in the context of the extradition of their client from the Sherifian Kingdom, in December 2019." The examples are legion. A possible violation of this principle cannot be ruled out. "Ignoring this rule of specialty, by exceeding the agreement given by the Moroccan authorities, constitutes a violation of a principle of public order, with strong diplomatic consequences," however warn the lawyers