HIBAPRESS – Fikri Ouldali
The Criminal Court of First Instance in the Court of Appeal in Al Hoceima has convicted a group of defendants in connection with their involvement in a case related to the organization of illegal immigration, after they were prosecuted on charges of organizing and facilitating the departure of people from the national territory secretly, and joining a criminal agreement for the purpose of committing those acts, in addition to possessing foreign goods without a valid legal document.
The chapters of the case go back to the middle of last November, when the judicial police were able to arrest those concerned, after they were caught on an inflatable boat and two water engines, which were intended to be used in an illegal emigration operation towards the northern shore, in addition to seizing sums of money suspected of being collected from candidates for illegal immigration.
The court sentenced the followers with sentences totaling 19 years in prison, which were distributed between two and four years of imprisonment for each of them, accompanied by enforceable fines of ten thousand dirhams for each defendant, with the issuance of suspended sentences in some cases.
The court also decided to confiscate the seized amounts of money for the benefit of the state treasury, and to seize the rest of the equipment for the benefit of the State Property Administration.
In the civil part, the court obliged the defendants to pay civil compensation for the benefit of the civil claimant amounting to 50,000 dirhams, in addition to 41,940 dirhams for the benefit of the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration, with a ruling to confiscate the inflatable boat and the two engines for the benefit of the same administration.
This ruling comes within the framework of the continuous efforts made by the security and judicial authorities to combat illegal immigration networks and to confront all forms of human trafficking and endangering the lives of citizens.
