HIBAPRESS – Mohamed El Harouali
The Al-Ittihad Al-Ishtiraki newspaper reported that Ismail Al-Barhoumi, the former head of the Harbil commune affiliated with the Marrakech prefecture, has been referred again to the investigating judge in charge of financial crimes at the Court of Appeal in Marrakech, along with two municipal employees, on suspicion of their involvement in felonies related to embezzlement and squandering of public funds, forgery of official documents, and their use.
The daily newspaper clarified that the current head of the commune received a letter from the Wali of the Marrakech-Safi region, dated February 17th, stating that the judicial agent for the territorial communities had received a notice from the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal in Marrakech regarding the referral of those concerned to the investigating judge, with a request to subject them to judicial supervision measures, including the withdrawal of passports and closing of borders, where an investigation file was opened under number 2025/2308/46 on December 5, 2025. This referral came after the completion of the preliminary investigation conducted by the regional judicial police, which was based on data included in a report by the Regional Council of Accounts in the Marrakech-Safi region, which detected irregularities in the management of the Harbil commune, especially with regard to the sanitation sector. The case exploded, according to the same newspaper, after one of those involved associated with the "Ozone" company, which was in charge of managing the sanitation sector in the commune, revealed what he described as suspicions and violations related to the implementation of the delegated management contract, which prompted the current president to file a complaint with the Attorney General, to forward the file to the judicial agent for the territorial communities, who called for the installation of the community as a civil party, and the appointment of a lawyer to defend its interests before the judiciary. The file is related to an agreement concluded between the Harbil commune and the "Ozone" company, during the period from 2017 to 2024, stipulating the company's commitment to add a new truck every year, with the ownership of seven trucks going to the commune at the end of the contract. However, this commitment was not respected, according to the available data. Al-Ittihad Al-Ishtiraki revealed the existence of suspicions regarding the establishment of a fictitious study office to monitor the implementation of the agreement, with the forgery of its documents and the opening of a bank account in the name of this office, to which the commune transferred a monthly amount of nearly 70,000 dirhams, before "Ozone" company benefited from it in unclear circumstances. It added that the company also received an amount of nearly six million dirhams, as part of the implementation of obligations related to managing the waste collection facility in the city of Tamensourt and neighboring areas, but the fate of these funds still raises questions, pending what the ongoing judicial investigations will reveal.
