Mayor of Tangier arrested upon return from Spain in election fraud case
Tangier Mayor Munir Lamouri was arrested upon arrival from Málaga as part of a broad investigation into electoral fraud. His arrest comes in the context of a case extending to implicate local and political officials.
Tangier mayor arrested upon arrival from Spain in parliamentary election fraud case
Tangier Mayor Munir Lamouri was arrested on Monday morning as soon as he disembarked from a plane arriving from Málaga at Ibn Battuta airport, in the context of a broad investigation being conducted by the authorities into suspected tampering with ballot papers during the Moroccan parliamentary elections held on 23 September.
Hespress reported that police elements detained Lamouri at the airport on the basis of a national search notice, before he was transferred to the judicial police in the city. Hespress had previously recorded his arrival and indicated that he would be presented before the competent judicial authority within the framework of the same judicial order.
Lamouri, who also holds the position of regional official in the Authenticity and Modernity Party, had denied any intention to flee following the disclosure of his travel to Spain. He affirmed that the trip was for professional purposes and pledged to return to Tangier and appear before the courts.
The investigation began following the apprehension of a person carrying a bag containing electoral materials related to polling centres at Al-Quds school in the Casbah quarter of Tangier. The prosecutors indicated that five persons were subsequently detained, including the heads of two polling stations and their deputies.
Initial investigation findings reveal that one of the deputies, in coordination with a polling station head, removed ballot papers from the polling centre and placed them in a bag, then returned them to the relevant centres in coordination with others. The investigators also established that the ink used on the seized ballot papers differs from that used inside the polling centres.
Four of the suspects have appeared before the public prosecutor thus far, whilst judicial proceedings remain ongoing on charges including violation of voting integrity, forgery and complicity in it.
Lamouri's arrest places the Tangier mayor directly at the centre of a case that has now come to exceed the original incident relating to the polling centres, extending towards investigating the possibility of involvement by local and political officials.
Source: Hespress