Morocco’s National Criminal Investigation Department (BNPJ) on Wednesday brought Secretary General of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad Abdallah Boussouf, a member of the opposition Progress and Socialism Party (PPS) political bureau and former head of the Hassan II Foundation for the promotion of social works for the public health sector; Saïd El Fekkak, the institution’s driver; Ibrahim Makhloufi; and Abdellatif Ouzzine before the public prosecutor at the Casablanca Court of First Instance, informed sources told Barlamane.
The four are charged with raising funds for Driss Farhane, a Moroccan “journalist” who has been convicted several times in Italy of defamation, and who runs the Chorok News24 website that is known for being hostile to Moroccan institutions.
Farhane is now facing serious charges of defamation, disturbance of public order, slander and insults, and contempt of official bodies in Morocco.
He is also being prosecuted for fraud and is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the Fes Court of Appeal examining magistrate.
Farhane, or “Driss-Article-540” (an allusion to article 540 of the Moroccan penal code concerning fraud), was prosecuted for swindling would-be emigrants to Europe when he was in Morocco, promising them work contracts in Italy in return for sums of money. One such case was an individual known only as D.B., from whom he had stolen the sum of 57,500 MAD in 2005 for a bounced cheque.
Farhane was arrested in 2015 upon his return to Morocco, even though he had been wanted since 2007 for “issuing a bounced cheque.” He was released after paying the amount due.
Farhane was also the subject of two complaints lodged with the Fes public prosecutor’s office in 2019 accusing him of fraud. Several victims claimed he had promised them work contracts in Italy, but then cheated them out of more than 120,000 dirhams.
Farhane has been convicted of crimes and served time in the Italian justice system. A court of appeal in Brescia sentenced him to five years and three months imprisonment, a fine of 1,000 euros, and a five-year publication ban, for “extortion and defamation” after extorting 20,000 euros from a Moroccan businessman based in Italy. Another appeal of this case is currently being heard by the cassation court.
Also in Italy, Farhane was expelled from the Islamic Center of Brescia, where he served as president, after embezzling an estimated two million dirhams comprised of membership fees and donations from the Moroccan diaspora.
On his Choroknews24 website, he has vehemently attacked various Moroccan national institutions and senior Moroccan officials and dignitaries, using the platform as a mouthpiece for anti-Moroccan diatribes with two live broadcasts a week, as well as for publishing tendentious articles almost daily.