Moroccan Consulate in Spain Ordered to Pay $50,000 for Employee’s Sexual Harassment Case

The employee, who held the position of secretary to the Moroccan consul, sued the consulate for unfair dismissal. In her complaint, she explains that she lost her job after refusing to give in to the advances of the former consul, Sidi Mohammed Biedallah, currently posted in Bilbao, who was sexually harassing her.

The case dates back to September 2020, when Sidi Mohammed Biedallah took office as Consul of Morocco in Murcia. The diplomat subjected the secretary to sexual assault. "On May 28, 2021, he tried to kiss her and hug her. He called her on her cell phone outside of working hours. But the plaintiff always rejected his advances," the indictment notes.

Faced with these refusals, the consul assigned the woman to a "position that did not suit her." The employee also suffered the rejection of her colleagues. Exhausted, she had a severe anxiety attack on January 18, 2022. She was dismissed without rights in December 2022, as she was about to return to work after a long treatment for "anxiety crisis due to sexual harassment."

In its ruling delivered at the end of April and to which La Opinión de Murcia had access, the Murcia court upheld the employee’s request, declaring the dismissal null and void and ordering the consulate to "immediately reinstate the woman in her job" and to pay her 56.89 euros per day since her dismissal until her reinstatement, as well as compensation of 51,000 euros.