HIBAPRESS – A. Muhayawi
The Primary Criminal Chamber in charge of adjudicating financial crimes at the Court of Appeal in Fez issued, on Tuesday afternoon, sentences of imprisonment and fines against three collective employees working for the Oujda community, against the backdrop of their involvement in a file related to the exploitation of the municipal impound.
The judicial body, headed by Counselor Mohamed Al-Lihya, sentenced the first defendant to one year in prison and a fine of 10,000 dirhams, with a ruling to pay civil compensation to the benefit of the Oujda community in the amount of 200,000 dirhams. The second defendant was also sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 20,000 dirhams, with civil compensation set at 500,000 dirhams for the benefit of the community. As for the third defendant, the court sentenced him to one and a half years in prison (18 months) and a fine of 15,000 dirhams, with a ruling to confiscate the seizures for the benefit of the public treasury, and to pay civil compensation to the benefit of the Oujda community set at 300,000 dirhams. Those concerned were prosecuted for charges related to participation in the embezzlement and squandering of public and private funds, the concealment of movable property placed under their control due to their position, in addition to the use of forged registration plates on vehicles, each according to what was attributed to him in the indictment. This ruling comes in the context of a wider file related to a criminal network suspected of exploiting the municipal impound in Oujda in order to seize impounded cars and motorcycles, by forging their license plates or dismantling them and selling them as spare parts in scrap markets. Elements of the Regional Judicial Police Brigade in Fez, in coordination with the services of the General Directorate for the Monitoring of National Territory, had launched intensive investigations that resulted in the arrest of a number of suspects, including public employees, with the seizure of cars, motorcycles, dismantled structures and various spare parts. Another file related to the same case is still being followed up in court, in which a number of defendants are being followed up, pending the completion of legal procedures and the final adjudication of the charges against them, with emphasis on the fact that all those being followed up enjoy the presumption of innocence until final judgments are issued.
