HIBAPRESS – A. Mahyaoui
The Criminal Court of First Instance at the Court of Appeal in Fez has closed a new chapter in the case of forging documents and judicial rulings, after sentencing a third defendant to five years in prison, on the grounds of his involvement in participating in the forgery of official and administrative documents and the use of a forged state seal. This ruling comes as a continuation of a series of decisions that were previously issued against a professor and a person impersonating a lawyer who were arrested in the same case.
The new defendant, who has been held in the Bourkaiz prison since August 8th, appeared before the court during the fourth session of the case's discussion inside Room No. 5, where his legal rights stipulated in Article 440 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were read out, generally regarding the right of appeal, which is the same procedure taken against the "fake lawyer" who was sentenced to four years in prison a few days ago.
The details of this case go back to a court scam, after a person who does not have legal status pretended to one of the victims that he could extract documents that would allow him to benefit from the multiple procedure in a short period of time, in exchange for a sum of 12,000 dirhams. The victim actually handed over the amount and received a "judicial ruling" that later turned out to be forged after attempting to use it in the procedures for documenting the second marriage.
Thanks to the investigations by the elements of the Provincial Judicial Police Department in Fez, the main suspect, who is known for his multiple precedents, was arrested through a tight ambush set up in the Ainat Al-Hajjaj neighborhood in the Saiss district. The operation resulted in the seizure of forged documents, before the investigations led to the arrest of his partner, the professor, and then the third defendant who was arrested on August 6th after his name appeared in the confessions of the other defendants.
With this ruling, the court has closed one of the episodes of this case that shook the legal and judicial circles in the city, pending the outcome of the appeal stages threatened by the defendants.
