Bribery
The president of the Harbil rural commune in the Marrakech prefecture and a civil servant in the same commune, suspected of involvement in a case of corruption, were brought before the King’s Prosecutor at the Ochre City Court of First Instance on Saturday September 2 by members of the Royal Gendarmerie.
The latter kept them in preventive detention. Both appeared on Monday, September 4, at a first hearing before the correctional chamber. The case arose following a telephone call made by a Moroccan resident abroad to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to denounce an act of corruption. The complainant explained to the caller, who took his complaint seriously, that he needed two building permits, one for commercial premises and the other for housing. So he applied to the town planning department at the Harbil rural commune. However, the official who greeted him told him that the president of the commune would only sign them once he had received the sum of 25,000 DH. The complainant pretended to accept the offer. He explained that he would pay him an advance of DH5,000 on Wednesday August 30, before handing over the remaining DH20,000. Without wasting any time, he alerted the public prosecutor’s office, which gave instructions to the gendarmes. The president of the Harbil commune was caught red-handed. Placed in police custody for 48 hours, the investigators asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office for a 24-hour extension, which ended last Saturday.
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