Tangier Mayor Mounir Laymouri was transferred to Assilah prison after appearing before the investigating judge at the city’s Court of Appeal on Thursday, October 1.
A vehicle carrying Laymouri left the basement of the Court of Appeal on Tangier’s Place des Nations under Royal Gendarmerie motorcycle escort, after the investigating judge ordered that he remain in pretrial detention while facing prosecution.
As previously reported, the King’s Prosecutor General at the Tangier Court of Appeal referred Laymouri to the investigating judge on Thursday, October 1, requesting that he be placed in pretrial detention. The mayor’s accountant was also referred to the court in connection with the case.
The decision came after Tangier police investigators brought the mayor before the King’s Prosecutor General on Thursday morning, following a 72-hour extension of his police custody under the supervision of the prosecution.
(S.Kadry/Le360)
The case dates back to election day on September 23, when a bag containing electoral documents was found near a polling station at Al Qods School in the Casabarata district.
A video showing the arrest of a man found carrying the bag subsequently circulated on social media, triggering widespread controversy over the conduct of voting in the constituency.
The King’s Prosecutor General in Tangier subsequently ordered an immediate judicial investigation. The inquiry quickly led to the arrest of five suspects, including two polling station presidents and their respective deputies.
The procedure described by the prosecution
On Saturday, September 26, prosecutors provided further details of the sequence of events established by investigators. The suspect arrested with the bag, who served as deputy president of a polling station, is alleged to have removed a batch of ballot papers from the polling station with the help of its president.
He allegedly concealed the ballots in the bag and took them out of the school before attempting to return them to two polling stations in coordination with the other people involved.
Investigators also found that the ink used to mark the seized ballots differed from the ink used at the polling stations. On the basis of these findings, prosecutors referred the case to the investigating judge and requested a judicial investigation into suspected interference with voting operations, falsification and complicity in those acts.
In a statement dated October 1, the Tangier prosecution said the two latest arrests—those of Mounir Laymouri and his accountant—were part of the continuing investigation. Both suspects were brought before the King’s Prosecutor General, while technical examinations were also carried out as part of the inquiry.
According to the findings of the preliminary investigation, the first suspect, an accountant employed by a company, took part in marking the symbol of a political party on ballot papers.
He is alleged to have acted at the request of his employer, Mounir Laymouri, the second suspect, who was in a hotel apartment with two other individuals carrying two bags containing ballot papers. The four men allegedly worked together to mark the political party’s symbol on the ballots.
Investigators managed to recover footage from the hotel’s surveillance cameras despite it having been deliberately deleted. The footage shows Laymouri in the apartment with his accountant and two other individuals who are currently in pretrial detention in connection with the same case, remaining there until they all left together. They were also accompanied by the suspect accused of removing the ballot papers from the polling station before returning them.
The footage further established that the two bags seen at the hotel were the same ones subsequently seized at the polling stations concerned. Investigators also found that Laymouri was present when the political party’s symbol was marked on the ballot papers.
What the phone examination revealed
A technical examination of Laymouri’s phone also revealed several calls made before and on election day to two suspects currently in pretrial detention in connection with the case.
Based on these findings, and in an effort to establish the full circumstances surrounding the case, prosecutors requested the opening of a judicial investigation into those concerned, who remain in pretrial detention, on charges of interfering with voting operations and complicity in falsification.
The King’s Prosecutor General 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.
