Morocco Court Sentences Royal Palace Watch Thieves to Prison Terms

The main suspect is a 46-year-old cleaning lady who worked in one of Mohammed VI’s palaces. She and her accomplice were both sentenced to 15 years in prison, the cleaning lady’s lawyer told the AFP.

According to the prosecution, the cleaning lady stole 36 luxury watches belonging to the sovereign. Her strategy was to melt these watches in order to resell the raw material to shops specializing in the gold trade.

The thirteen other convicts are all men working in retail and gold brokerage. Their arrest had taken place at the end of December 2019. Prosecuted for "aggravated theft" and "forming a criminal gang", they all received at least four years in prison. In court, they claimed they were unaware of the origin of the watches.