The lawyer for the civil parties in the sex scandal case involving former French boss Jacques Bouthier and several of his collaborators in Morocco, made the official announcement, Saturday, July 15, during a press conference in Rabat. “The Court of Tangier accepted our request to create a rogatory commission in France. The procedure is ongoing,” said Me Aïcha Guellaa, also president of the Moroccan Association for Victims’ Rights (AMDV).
According to Me Guellaa, this commission will have For objective of listening to Jacques Bouthier, who is at the same time nominated in France for, among other things, “human trafficking” and “child rape”. Aged 76, the former CEO of the Assu 2000 insurance brokerage group was released on bail and under judicial supervision, for medical reasons, in March 2023, after ten months in detention.
“There is no hope in French justice”
“French justice did not have the courage in the face of financial pressure (…), it did not have the courage to prosecute him in a state of detention”, lamented the lawyer. “We have no hope that French justice will be able to bring justice to the victims,” he added.
If Jacques Bouthier is not prosecuted at this stage in Morocco, eight of his collaborators – six Moroccans, including two women, and two French – will be prosecuted for “human trafficking” and “sexual harassment”, “incitement to debauchery” and “failure to report attempted or completed crimes”.
Four from between They are currently detained while the others are on provisional release. His trial is expected to resume on July 25th before the first instance criminal chamber of the Tangier Court of Appeal.
Six plaintiffs who are civil parties
Furthermore, “an investigative note was released by the prosecutor general of the Tangier Court of Appeal against a suspect who was discovered to France,” said lawyer Abdelfattah Zahrach. This is the former general manager of the Tangier participation of Assu 2000 (renamed Vilavi), a French-Tunisian, according to AMDV.
The case was initiated in Morocco following complaints from former employees filed in June 2022 in Tangier. The alleged acts took place between 2018 and April 2022 in branches of the group, then led by Jacques Bouthier.
In total, six plaintiffs returned as civil parties. They testified about systematic sexual harassment, threats and intimidation within the insurance brokerage in Tangier, in a climate of precariousness Social.
(With AFP)
