Moroccan Politician Jailed: Land Fraud Scandal Rocks Tangier’s Real Estate Market

Ahmed Zeggaf, vice-president of the Mghogha district in Tangier, is in hot water. After a ban on leaving Moroccan territory, the elected official was arrested and brought before the Attorney General of the King. On Thursday, the elected official was presented before the investigating judge who decided to prosecute him while in custody. He would be involved in real estate transactions tainted with irregularities. In total, about twenty cases, some of which are still pending before the courts. The accusations against Zeggaf are numerous: falsification of administrative certificates, use of forged official documents, exploitation of cancelled contracts to illegally appropriate land, as well as several other files related to land disputes.

Zeggaf is the subject of a first complaint for clandestine subdivision and usurpation of real estate. In June, a citizen took legal action against him. He discovered that the plot of land the elected official had sold him had been sold a second time to another buyer. That’s not all. Another plaintiff filed a complaint against him regarding the fraudulent sale of lots on a disputed 5,000 m² plot of land. The plaintiff accuses the councilor of having falsified judicial documents to seize it. According to documents consulted by Hespress, Zeggaf would have, at first, signed a deed of renunciation to try to close the case with the real owner of the land, before going back on his decision.

The elected official has indeed filed a new appeal against the land regularization procedure, relying on presumed tampered documents that could aggravate his case. He risks a lot.