Tangier Mayor Mounir Laymouri will remain in police custody after prosecutors granted an extension on Wednesday, following about 10 hours of questioning over the Al Qods election papers case.
The questioning turned to telephone calls between Laymouri and people already facing proceedings in the case, some of them made before the Sept 23 legislative vote, according to information obtained by Le360.
Investigators put records of those calls to the mayor during his questioning at Tangier police prefecture. Laymouri chose not to answer and said he would wait until his appearance before the Prosecutor General before making a statement, according to the same information.
Police arrested Laymouri on Monday as he arrived at Tangier Ibn Battouta airport on a flight from Malaga. He had been wanted for questioning after his name was cited by a suspect during inquiries into the election papers found at Al Qods school in Casabarata.
Before flying back, the mayor told Le360 that his stay in Spain was a work trip, denied fleeing Morocco and said he had “nothing to do with this case.”
The case dates to polling day, when a bag containing hundreds of election ballots was found near the Al Qods polling center. Prosecutors have since said that ballot papers were taken out of the school and that an attempt was made to bring them back into two polling stations.
Seven people are now in custody in the case, including Laymouri.
