Morocco: PJD Officials Sentenced to 8 Years for Corruption in Bar Sting Operation

On Thursday, July 11, 2019, the Court of Appeal of Kénitra sentenced the President of the Commune of Haddada and a Councilor to a sentence of 8 years’ imprisonment, for corruption and blackmail. They had both been arrested by the police... in a bar. The police officers had set a trap in which the two officials fell.

The newspaper Assabah recalls that this case has seen several twists and turns. While originally the President of the Commune had filed a complaint for blackmail, it later turned out, according to the police investigation, that he himself had tried to bribe elected officials to vote in his favor.

At first instance, he had been sentenced to a sentence of 4 months in prison and a fine of 6,000 dirhams, a sentence which, after the appeal judgment, increases to 8 years, after the discovery of new elements.

It should be recalled that three people had been arrested last November in a bar for corruption, namely the Mayor and two other Councilors. One of them, from the Isiqlal Party, had been cleared by the courts.