TSA.dz.- The situation is not improving for Morocco, embroiled in the Moroccogate corruption scandal involving its services of members of the European Parliament.
The Belgian judiciary is determined to go all the way. It is now calling for the Moroccan officials implicated in Moroccogate.
The scandal broke last December and the investigation by the Brussels police and judiciary led to the arrest and indictment of several elected officials. The latest is Belgian MEP Marc Tabarella, who was charged and jailed on Saturday for “corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation”.
The investigation revealed Morocco’s role in setting up a corruption network of MEPs with the aim of influencing European foreign policy, especially on issues relating to Western Sahara and human rights in the kingdom.
The key figures in the operation are Moroccan officials. So far, at least two names have been mentioned: Abderrahim Atmoun, the Moroccan ambassador to Poland, and Mohamed Bellahreche, a Moroccan DGED (foreign intelligence) official.
After the corrupt, justice is now pursuing the corrupters. The French daily Le Figaro reports in its edition of Monday 13 February that the Belgian judiciary has sent arrest warrants to France for several Moroccan officials.
The newspaper does not mention the names of these officials, nor their number or rank. It is possible that Ambassador Atmoun and agent Bellahreche are included, as they have been cited in the course of the investigation.
Moroccogate: risk of aggravation of the crisis between France and Morocco
According to a diplomatic source quoted by Le Figaro, these arrest warrants would put the French authorities in a tight spot.
Relations between France and Morocco have been strained for several months, probably because of the Pegasus affair, named after the Israeli software used by the Moroccan services to spy on thousands of telephones in Morocco and around the world, including that of French President Emmanuel Macron.
After the European Parliament adopted a resolution on 19 January condemning the attacks on press freedom in Morocco, Moroccan politicians and media openly accused the French president and Algeria of being behind the international pillorying.
“We are ashamed. These people have children in France. We would not like to have to arrest them when they get off the plane if they come to see them,” a diplomat told Le Figaro on condition of anonymity about the Moroccan officials wanted by the Belgian judiciary.
More explicitly, the diplomat said that this would risk disrupting the diplomatic agenda between the two countries, in particular Emmanuel Macron’s planned visit to Rabat.
“These are people we would not like to touch. It would look bad when Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to visit Morocco soon,” the French diplomat added to Figaro.
A sign of the ongoing tensions between the two countries, this presidential visit is slow to materialise. The French daily Le Monde reported on Monday 13 February that it has been postponed again to after the month of Ramadan, indicating that it will not take place before 20 April. Le Monde refers to the kingdom’s ‘lack of enthusiasm’ for organising such a visit.
