Moroccan Official and Son Arrested for Staging Murder as Suicide on Farm

The main perpetrator of this crime is the vice-president of the municipal council of Sidi Bettache, in the province of Benslimane. The farm where the victim was found hanged belongs to the municipal councilor. The suicide thesis was quickly ruled out following the testimonies collected by the elements of the Royal Gendarmerie. With contradictory versions, the royal gendarmerie of Sidi Slimane decided to further investigate the case, reports the daily Al Akhbar.

Formal elements have proven that it is not a suicide, but a murder orchestrated by the municipal councilor, his son and the farm’s caretaker. The three have been placed in pre-trial detention for the purposes of the investigation. They are being prosecuted for voluntary homicide, with premeditation, in addition to the attempt to make the victim’s body disappear. Two other people working on the farm where the murder took place are also being prosecuted, but at liberty.

Last Wednesday, as the investigating judge was questioning the accused, several people, including the victim’s relatives and friends, organized a sit-in in front of the Court of Appeal in Rabat. They will receive the support of civil society associations who demand that these people be punished to the extent of their crime, the same source specifies.