HIBAPRESS
The General Directorate of National Security denied the claims contained in an article published in the French newspaper "Le Figaro," alleging a delay in the investigation into the disappearance of a French citizen in the city of Rabat in 2024.
The General Directorate of National Security stated in a statement that it had "reviewed an article published in the French newspaper "Le Figaro" that addressed the case of the reported disappearance of a French citizen in the city of Rabat in a way that was marred by inaccuracy and included claims attributed to some parties in the case alleging a delay in the investigation and a lack of responsiveness from the investigation team to the requests of the missing person's family."
To enlighten public opinion and respond to these false claims, the statement by the General Directorate of National Security reviewed the most important investigation paths in this case, the sum of the field procedures, technical expertise, and completed appointments, while adhering to the limits of publication permitted by law in a case that is still the subject of investigation procedures.
In this regard, the statement clarified that on April 13, 2024, the services of the Rabat Security Prefecture received a notification about the sudden absence of a French citizen from an apartment he was renting, where the judicial police squad and crime scene technicians began initial examinations and transitions that did not allow for the detection of any criminal suspicion regarding the motives for the disappearance, due to the absence of any signs of a break-in at the apartment and the absence of any evidence of theft, as his personal belongings, digital and electronic equipment, and a sum of money were found.
He added that the investigation was deepened to determine whether there was a hypothesis of criminal suspicion or not, through crime scene experts and a team from the National Laboratory of Scientific and Technical Police who conducted a scan and combing of the missing person's apartment, as well as the apartment of a person who was with him before the declaration of his disappearance, using advanced technical materials and equipment, and genetic patterns were lifted from these places in order to exploit them in the investigation paths, but no evidence or indication was found that would suggest the hypothesis of criminal suspicion.
In the interest of clarifying the truth about the disappearance of this French citizen, who was 29 years old at the time of the disappearance, the statement indicates that the competent Public Prosecution entrusted the investigation of this case to the National Judicial Police Brigade in Casablanca, which listened to all the people who interacted with the missing person, or spoke to him by phone, or knew him, and the number of hearings reached more than 60 hearings for listening and interrogation.
The investigation team also conducted technical expertise on some equipment and electronic devices belonging to the person in question, and nothing was found to allow for determining his location. Moreover, the path of the cities he traveled to in Morocco in Tetouan and Chefchaouen was identified and tracked, and all those he met in those cities were visited and questioned, but he was not found.
In a related context, the National Judicial Police Brigade, under the supervision of the Public Prosecution, directed dozens of requests for information and technical appointments to telecommunications network operators, financial and banking institutions, and the General Directorate of Customs and Indirect Taxes, regarding the financial transactions of the person in question and his communications prior to the disappearance, as well as the foreign car he used at one time in Morocco, but no criminal suspicion was detected, nor was any new information about the whereabouts of the person in question reached.
The investigation team, with the permission of the Public Prosecution, also directed requests for information through international security cooperation channels to determine the path of the financial transfers of the missing person, which in turn confirmed the same previous results.
The General Directorate of National Security stressed that, contrary to what the French newspaper "Le Figaro" had stated, and in refutation of the claims attributed to the investigation team, the family of the person declared missing was received on more than five occasions at the headquarters of the Regional Judicial Police Brigade in Rabat, and was informed of all developments in the investigation, and was handed over belongings owned by their missing son under a legal record by order of the competent Public Prosecution.
The National Judicial Police Brigade also interacted with all requests for information that were received from the French liaison officer in Morocco regarding some phone notifications that the missing person's father had received, and claimed to have seen the latter in the cities of Casablanca, Mohammedia, Ifrane, Azrou, Khénifra, Fez, and some mountainous areas in the High Atlas.
The same source pointed out that six search teams were formed that moved to all these cities, including a field team that carried out its mission for more than three weeks in the High Atlas regions, and all those who reported were heard, and the people who were suspected of being the missing person were reached, and it turned out that one of them was a French citizen, the second was an Estonian citizen, and the third was Moroccan, and that they had nothing to do with the French citizen who was declared missing.
To deepen the search, the National Judicial Police Brigade circulated an urgent notice to all National Security and Royal Gendarmerie services to search for any French citizen with the specifications of the missing person, and he was not found anywhere, including hospitals and psychiatric clinics, especially since all the statements obtained indicated that the missing person was suffering from serious psychological complications.
The statement mentioned that regarding the hypothesis of the missing person's religious extremism, which was indicated in the "Le Figaro" newspaper article, the General Directorate of National Security confirms that the investigations and inquiries carried out on this subject, in coordination with the General Directorate for the Monitoring of National Territory, did not allow for the detection of any extremist links of the person concerned on the national territory.
The statement concluded that the General Directorate of National Security, while clarifying the developments of the investigation in this case, refuting the incorrect published claims, confirms in return that the National Judicial Police Brigade is still following up on the investigation in this case as required by law, and the last legal action it took was on January 20, 2026.
