Moroccan Lawmaker Among 8 Arrested in Forgery and Corruption Scandal

It all started with a complaint for forgery filed by the Customs Administration. It had prosecuted a Libyan drug trafficker for non-payment of a fine, reports the Arabic-language daily Al Akhbar. While he was serving a ten-year prison sentence in Morocco, a justice official, a member of a criminal network, approached him to offer his services: to obtain his provisional release. Lawyers and he falsified a judgment of acquittal, as well as a discharge from Customs by which it renounces the prosecution of the detainee.

A UC (Union Constitutionnelle) elected official, Abdelaziz El Ouadgui, deputy of Larache, four lawyers, a man and a woman, as well as two others registered with the bars of Casablanca and Rabat, a company director in Tetouan and a company manager, as well as an official at the court of first instance of Aïn Sbâa in Casablanca, all members of the criminal network, were arrested as part of this case. These eight defendants are now being prosecuted in preventive detention at the civil prison of Casablanca-Ain Sbaâ.

Several charges are brought against them: formation of a criminal gang, forgery, corruption, fraud, receiving stolen goods, destruction of an official document and its use, participation in the destruction and concealment of public and private documents that would have facilitated the search for crimes or offenses, disclosure of evidence and fraud offense.