PAM froze Tangier Mayor Mounir Laymouri’s membership across all party structures on Friday, a day after an investigating judge ordered him held in pre-trial detention in the Al Qods election ballots case.
The party’s National Arbitration and Ethics Commission said it had been referred the matter by PAM’s political bureau over allegations involving Laymouri, who is the party’s provincial secretary in Tangier-Assilah as well as president of the Tangier municipal council.
The disciplinary action follows an investigation into events surrounding the Sept 23 legislative election in the Tangier-Assilah constituency.
Laymouri was ordered into pre-trial detention on Thursday by an investigating judge at the Tangier Court of Appeal and subsequently transferred to Assilah prison.
The investigation began after a bag containing election documents was discovered near the Al Qods polling center in Casabarata on election day. Investigators subsequently arrested several suspects, including polling-station officials, over allegations that ballots had been removed from a polling station and attempts made to bring them back into two voting stations.
Laymouri’s name later surfaced during questioning of one of the suspects. A national search warrant was issued after investigators sought him at his home and found that he had travelled to Spain.
The mayor denied fleeing the country, saying the trip had been arranged beforehand. He returned from Malaga on Sept 28 and was arrested on arrival at Tangier Ibn Battouta airport.
Read also : Tangier Mayor Mounir Laymouri sent to Assilah prison in ballot fraud case
PAM’s ethics commission stopped short of drawing conclusions from the criminal proceedings against him.
It said its decision took account of the judicial investigation while stressing the independence of the judiciary and the presumption of innocence. Criminal responsibility, it said, could only be established by a final court ruling.
The commission also drew a line between that process and PAM’s own disciplinary powers, saying internal party proceedings were independent of any determination of criminal responsibility.
Laymouri’s membership was frozen under Article 149 of PAM’s statutes and applies to all structures of the party.
