Moroccan Drug Trafficking Suspect with Cancer Denied Release from French Prison

During his appearance on Friday before the Montauban court, Driss requested release for health reasons. "The return of my cancer is confirmed, where I was operated on," he states. Prosecuted for participating in a large-scale drug trafficking operation, the 50-year-old man was returned to pre-trial detention at the Seysses prison (Haute-Garonne) after the lawyer of one of the defendants requested a postponement at the hearing on April 7. The new hearing is scheduled for June, according to La Dépêche.

Subject to a European arrest warrant issued by French authorities, Driss was arrested while traveling to Morocco via France. "Before my arrest, I had made an appointment for a scan, but I was arrested on my way to Morocco, where I was supposed to go to my brother’s funeral," he explains. Like their parents, the fifty-year-old man of Dutch origin’s brother died of thyroid cancer. According to him, the doctor at Seysses prison confirmed the diagnosis made by his Dutch doctor.

As his lawyer was absent at Friday’s hearing, Driss was assigned another court-appointed lawyer. The deputy prosecutor, Alice Gardair, opposes his request for release. "His situation is the same as in early April. There remains a flagrant risk of reoffending. He has no residence in France," she argues, highlighting his "colossal" prison sentences in Morocco (14 years for theft, extortion, and drugs) and in France (2 years in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, for drug trafficking and active corruption of prison guards).

Driss’s request is based "on medical grounds," argues his court-appointed lawyer, who asks for him to be placed under electronic monitoring to allow him to "receive proper treatment." "I don’t want to flee, I’m ready to leave my passport and wear an electronic bracelet outside. Cancer is hereditary. I’ve lost my father, mother, and brother," pleads the defendant. But in the end, his request was not accepted. The judges decided to keep him in detention until his trial in June.