The Moroccan judiciary is to send an investigative commission to France in connection with the sex scandal involving former French big wig Jacques Bouthier and several of his associates in Morocco, the lawyer for the civil parties announced on Saturday
The Tangier Court granted the association’s request to establish a committee for interrogation of the matter in France. The procedure is already underway, according to lawyer Acha Guellaa, President of the Moroccan Association for Victims’ Rights (AMDV).
According to Guellaa, the goal of this commission will be to examine Jacques Bouthier, who is also under investigation in France for “human trafficking” and “rape of a minor.”
After ten months in detention, the 76-year-old former CEO of Assu 2000, an insurance brokerage business, was freed on bail under judicial monitoring for medical reasons in March, 2023. The French justice system had neither the motivation nor the courage to prosecute him while he was detained due to reasons of corruption, the lawyer bemoaned.
While Bouthier is not being prosecuted in Morocco at the moment, eight of his colleagues–including six Moroccans, two of whom are women, and two Frenchmen–are facing allegations of “human trafficking,” “sexual harassment,” “incitement to debauchery,” and “failure to report attempted or completed crimes.”
Four of the individuals are currently being detained, while the others have been granted provisional parole. Their trial is set to resume on July 25 before the Tangier Court of Appeal’s criminal chamber of first instance.
The public prosecutor of the Tangier appeal court issued an arrest warrant for a suspect who fled to France, per lawyer Abdelfattah Zahrach and the AMDV.
Following accusations from former employees, the investigation was opened in Tangier in June 2022. The case has since been joined by six female plaintiffs.