The former president of the commune of Jorf El Melha, under the province of Sidi Kacem, Abdelaziz Essadeq, appeared on Wednesday April 30 before the Chamber of Financial Crimes of the Rabat Court of Appeal. It is prosecuted for the embezzlement and dilapidation of public funds, falsification of official and administrative documents, as well as the power.
In its Friday May 2 edition, the daily Al Akhbar Specifies that the defendant, already imprisoned in the context of another case for which he was sentenced to ten years in prison, was transferred Wednesday from Tamena Prison at the Palais de Justice de Rabat, in order to be tried in person for facts related to corruption cases during his mandate at the head of the commune of Sidi Kacem. He had been condemned in absentia to five years in prison, at first instance and then confirmed on appeal.
Abdelaziz Essadeq, holder of American nationality, was the subject of a complaint filed by opposition advisers and by the national authority for the protection of public funds in Morocco, which revealed a scandal of embezzlement of public funds and manipulation of compensation during its mandate. Unable to be tried in person because of his flight abroad, he was sentenced in 2017 to ten years in prison in another case tried at the Kenitra Court of Appeal. He was continued with his brother, also president of commune in the province of Ouezzane, as well as their father, two softens (notaries) and a doctor.
The Mauritanian authorities had given Abdelaziz Essadeq to the Moroccan authorities last March, in execution of an international research mandate issued against him. He was first incarcerated in Kenitra central prison, then transferred to that of Tamesna, where he waited to appear again before the Court of Financial Crimes of Rabat for the case in which he was sentenced in absentia in February 2023 to five years in prison, a fine of 300,000 dirhams and 200,000 dirhams of damages to pay to the civil party.
The Chamber of Financial Crimes on appeal decided on Wednesday evening to send the file to the first instance criminal chamber of the same court for a new trial at first instance, which promises to be charged with twists and turns.
-This other case is linked to a scandal for falsifying documents in order to hide a rape that led to pregnancy, involving the father of the two imprisoned presidents. The victim, a servant working at home, gave birth to a child, and an attempt to sell the infant in Casablanca would also have taken place.
The Kenitra court criminal chamber had sentenced Abdelaziz Essadeq in January 2017 to ten years in prison, and his third vice-president at one year in prison, when they had been acquitted at first instance. They were prosecuted to falsify administrative documents without intervention by an authority agent, kidnapping and sequestration of a servant, and a fictitious marriage with a coffee server, in order to stifle the rape scandal committed by their father, who led to the birth of a girl.
The court also confirmed the conviction of his brother Abdelilah Essadeq, president of the rural commune of Sidi Bou Sber (province of Ouezzane), at ten years in prison, as well as their father Abdelkarim Essadeq at the age of eight, two softeels at ten years each, and the “fictional husband” at ten years too. A doctor prosecuted for issuing a suspicious celibacy certificate was sentenced to three months suspended prison sentence, in addition to compensation of 450,000 dirhams.
Par Wind
05/01/2025 at 10:01 p.m.
