Moroccan Local Official Jailed for Alleged Election Day Kidnapping Scheme

Some members of the municipal council of Assouakane have accused the commune president of kidnapping and sequestration during the September 8 elections, reports the Arabic-language daily Al Akhbar. A member of the municipal council, a lawyer by profession, filed a complaint against him for kidnapping. The RNI elected official claimed to have been forced into a car by a criminal gang on a mission for the suspect. He would have been taken to an agricultural farm in the commune of Sahel. A way to prevent him from running in the elections. Another member of the municipal council accused the commune president "of having plotted the kidnapping of his wife, who is also a municipal councilor, in order to form a majority".

Not responding to several summons from the public prosecutor’s office, a warrant of arrest was issued against the accused. Subsequently, the gendarmes arrested him at the town hall during the council meeting as he was trying to flee. He was incarcerated in the local prison. Subsequently, the investigating judge who heard him ordered the continuation of his pre-trial detention for kidnapping and sequestration.

A trial had taken place in March in this case. The criminal chamber of the Tangier Court of Appeal had sentenced one of the men who participated in the kidnapping of the candidate (RNI) to five years in prison.