Moroccan Official Arrested at Airport on Corruption Charges After Fleeing to Spain

Anas Al Yemlahi, the third deputy mayor of the commune of Tétouan, accused of having issued bad checks, received bribes from certain people to whom he had promised to have them hired as judicial commissioners, and who had gone to Spain to escape detention, was arrested on Tuesday morning by the security services at Rabat-Salé airport after his return to Morocco, reports the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia. One of the complainants claims to have given him a sum of 300,000 dirhams so that he would have one of his relatives hired as a judicial commissioner, while these recruitments are made through competitive examinations, organized by the Ministry of Justice. According to some of his relatives, the elected official’s debts are estimated at tens of millions of dirhams, spread across different bad checks and various debt acknowledgments.

After his arrest, the former advisor in the cabinet of Mohamed Ben Abdelkader (USFP), Minister of Modernization of Public Administration and Minister of Justice, from 2012 to 2019, in the government of Saaddedine El Otmani (PJD), will have to be transferred to Tétouan, then presented before the prosecutor of the king near the court of first instance. After his hearing in Tétouan, a possible summons before the Attorney General of the King near the Court of Appeal of Rabat would be possible. Without excluding his referral to the public prosecutor’s office in charge of financial crimes.

Some of the elected official’s relatives are working to prevent Al Yemlahi from going to prison by trying to convince his creditors to withdraw their complaints. Others are collecting money from certain entrepreneurs and businessmen in the city to pay off his debts.