Moroccan Justice Minister Defends $1.1 Million Property Gift Amid Hacker Leak Scandal

According to the leaked documents, the Minister of Justice would have acquired a property in 2020, before his entry into the government, for an amount of 11 million dirhams through a bank loan. This has caused an uproar, as many Internet users are questioning the asset transparency of senior public officials. Trying to cut short the controversy, Abdellatif Ouahbi assures that it is a gift he made to his wife in 2024 within the framework of the "kadd wa sa’aya", an ancestral principle recognizing the domestic work of the wife. "She has accompanied me for 30 years. This house is a recognition. She deserves it," he said in an interview with Hespress.

"I offered this property to my wife, who does not work and receives no pension, in recognition of her domestic work, which I have always defended," he added, stating that all his properties are declared every year. Ouahbi also assured that he did not obtain any personal gain from this operation. "I did not receive any money, nor did I derive any profit from this operation. It is neither a sale nor a paid transfer," he continued. According to the minister, it is up to him to set the value of the property: "I am free to evaluate the property at the amount I wish within the framework of a donation. There has been neither transaction nor profit."

Speaking about the selective and manipulated leaks, Ouahbi specified that "those who disseminate these documents do so in a deliberately partial manner. These are actors abroad, but also a "fifth column" within the country, who exploit these documents to settle scores." These "documents come from obscure sources abroad. Their dissemination is not aimed at the truth but at manipulation," he believes.