HIBAPRESS – Oujda
On Monday, May 11th, the Criminal Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Oujda issued its initial rulings in a file that sparked much controversy, concerning a female network involved in the possession and international trafficking of narcotics, and facilitating their consumption by others in exchange for money.
After careful deliberation, the court decided to convict the three defendants, who were prosecuted in custody, with effective prison sentences totaling 20 years, and the sentences were distributed as follows: The main defendant: was sentenced to 9 years in prison and a fine of 5,000 dirhams. The second defendant: The court sentenced her to 6 years in prison and a fine of 5,000 dirhams. The third defendant: received her share of the punishment with 5 years in prison and a fine of 5,000 dirhams, after she was acquitted of the misdemeanor of direct trafficking and convicted of the rest of the charges against her. The court also ordered all the convicted persons to bear the expenses in solidarity, with a decision to destroy all the narcotic materials that were seized during the arrest, in accordance with the legal procedures in force. On the civil side of the file, the court responded to the demands of the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration, issuing a ruling requiring the three defendants to pay a large civil compensation in favor of the administration. The amount of compensation: The court set the amount at 22 million and 515 thousand and 450 dirhams (more than 2.2 billion centimes), which the defendants will pay in solidarity with each other. In a punitive measure to ensure the collection of these amounts, the body set the period of physical coercion at one year of effective imprisonment in the event of refusal or inability to pay this heavy financial compensation. These rulings come in the context of the security and judicial efforts aimed at drying up the sources of drug trafficking in the Eastern region, and hitting the networks that try to exploit the female element for camouflage and to escape surveillance.
