Moroccan Parliament Under Fire for Paying Jailed MPs, Sparking Corruption Concerns

Parliamentarians Said Zaydi and Babour Sghir have been in prison for months awaiting a verdict against them, but continue to receive allowances exceeding 36,000 DH per month. According to constitutional law expert Rachid Lazraq, the fact of paying allowances to arrested parliamentarians is a behavior contrary to the ethics of the parliamentary bodies. Moreover, this "constitutes an explicit call for the normalization of political corruption."

In a statement to the Al-Omk Almaghribi website, the expert stressed that "the two chambers of Parliament are morally obliged to suspend the parliamentarian who is in pre-trial detention from his duties, so that he is first removed from his status before the justice system, so that there is no interference." Secondly, Parliament must take this measure "in order to freeze the payment of his monthly allowances, pending the decision of the court."

"In the absence of a clear legal text to deal with such cases, the two Chambers are morally obliged to dismiss these parliamentarians from their function by precaution, given that their absence from legislative sessions is unjustified, as well as to send the right message: Parliament does not approve of political corruption and does not interfere in the functioning of the judicial system," added Rachid Lazraq.