In a statement issued Thursday, October 1, the King’s Prosecutor at the Tangier Court of Appeal said the two arrests came as part of the ongoing investigation following the detention of five initial suspects. Technical examinations were also carried out as investigators sought to establish the circumstances of the alleged ballot manipulation.
According to the preliminary findings, one of the two new suspects, an accountant at one of Laymouri’s companies, allegedly marked the symbol of a political party on ballot papers at the request of his employer.
Laymouri, the second suspect, was allegedly in a hotel apartment with two other people who were carrying two bags containing ballot papers. The four men are suspected of having marked the party’s symbol on the ballots together.
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Investigators recovered hotel surveillance footage that had been deliberately deleted, according to the prosecution. The footage shows the second suspect in the apartment with his accountant and two other individuals, both of whom are currently in pre-trial detention in connection with the same case, until they all left together. They were also accompanied by the suspect accused of removing the ballot papers from the polling station before later returning them.
The footage further established that the bags seen at the hotel were the same two bags subsequently seized at the polling stations concerned. Investigators also established that the second suspect was present when the political party’s symbol was marked on the ballot papers.
A technical examination of the second suspect’s phone also revealed several calls made before and on election day to two of the suspects currently being held in pre-trial detention in the case.
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On the basis of these findings, and in an effort to establish all the circumstances surrounding the case, prosecutors requested the opening of a judicial investigation into those concerned, who are to remain in pre-trial detention, on charges of interfering with the voting process and complicity in forgery.
The King’s public prosecutor at the Tangier Court of Appeal said the prosecution would continue to follow the judicial investigation and submit the necessary applications as part of its commitment to the strict enforcement of the law.
