Since he inherited the Ministry of Justice in September 2021, Abdellatif Ouahbi has had a series of controversies: in eight months, he has managed to alienate lawyers, magistrates, and civil society.
Speaking on May 31 at a conference in Salé (northern Morocco ), Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi accused certain associations for the protection of public funds of “blackmailing” elected municipal officials as well as former ministers.
“There are associations which ally themselves with parties and blackmail the presidents of municipalities”, he thus assured. According to him, these NGOs would ask local elected officials for money or risk filing a complaint against them.
To justify his serious accusations, the Minister explained that “a commune president can intervene to implement a road in order to save an area from flooding and make use of a false agreement under the pressure of time so that a certain company can finish the road”.
The Minister of Justice, moreover himself president of the municipality of Taroudant (500 km south of Rabat), therefore sees no problem in defying the laws and procedures if this makes it possible to “save lives”.
Worse, he regrets that this president of the commune finds himself under the threat of a complaint for squandering of public property from these associations.
To stop this “extortion” of associations for the protection of public funds against elected officials, Ouahbi sees two solutions. “Prevent them from filing a complaint, or allow them to file a complaint, but if the verdict acquits him, the NGO could itself be sued [for defamation]”, he suggests.
Already at the end of April, Abdellatif Ouahbi attacked these NGOs under the dome of the House of Councillors. “We must put an end to the complaints lodged by associations for the defense of public property against presidents of municipalities suspected of corruption,” he declared.
The solution according to him? An amendment to criminal procedure giving the Minister of the Interior exclusive rights to prosecute these elected officials.
A “symptom of the current climate”
Unfortunately for him, Ouahbi found himself somewhat isolated in this controversy within his own government, which half-disavowed his remarks.
Asked about this during a press briefing , the spokesman for the Moroccan executive, Mustapha Baïtas, contented himself with replying that “it [was] still too early to talk about the law”.
“This government does not tolerate any political opposition. The only alternative is civil society, which the government has thus targeted”
– Mohamed Ghalloussi, President of the Moroccan Association for the Protection of Public Funds
“In order to make changes to the laws, they must follow a certain number of validation procedures, both at the level of the government council and of Parliament,” he added.
Contacted by Middle East Eye, Mohamed Ghalloussi, president of the Moroccan Association for the Protection of Public Funds (AMPDP), does not hide his desolation.
“We expected Mr. Ouahbi, as Minister of Justice, to open a debate around this issue, so that he could explain to us the reasons why he wants to deprive associations from filing complaints against elected officials”, regrets he.
For him, “this behavior is the symptom of the current climate in the country, in regression in terms of rights since this government came to power”.
“This government does not tolerate any political opposition. The only alternative is civil society, which the government has thus targeted,” denounces Mohamed Ghalloussi.
And for good reason, the ruling coalition, made up of the National Rally of Independents (RNI, center right), party of the wealthy head of the Moroccan government Aziz Akhannouch , the Authenticity and Modernity Party ( PAM , center left, led by Abdellatif Ouahbi) and the Istiqlal party (conservative nationalist), has 198 seats out of 395 in Parliament.
A score that leaves the opposition no chance and allows the executive to govern comfortably.
“It is unconstitutional and illogical. Even the president of the National Council for Human Rights has declared that the achievements of civil society must not be touched. If the government played its true role in the fight against corruption, our associations would have no place to exist”, notes an associative activist.
“Today there is a climate of extreme tolerance towards corruption. Worse, there is a political will to “normalize” corruption”, adds the activist, who describes the situation as “dangerous, not for associations, but for society and the image of the country abroad”.
“They made no sacrifice, that’s why they allow themselves to trample the gains in terms of rights and freedoms. Instead of being the Minister of Justice for all Moroccans, he chose to be the minister of the elected and the privileged,” protests Mohamed Ghalloussi.
“A crime more serious than squandering”
“What he proposed is truly absurd. The sanction he suggests for libelous denunciation is ten years! This would mean that slanderous denunciation becomes a more serious crime in the eyes of the penal code than the squandering and embezzlement of public funds. »
This week, the Minister spoke at length with the weekly TelQuel , which devoted its cover to him.
Asked about his controversial remarks concerning associations for the defense of public funds, Ouahbi again preferred to play the confrontation.
“If we let people complain about them [elected officials] and offend them, it just means there are thieves everywhere and there are no innocent people under our skies. The thief will be arrested one day or another, whether through a complaint from an association for the protection of public property or through the state,” he retorted.
Transparency International has assigned Morocco a score of 39 in its public sector corruption perception index for the year 2021, below the world average (43).
A figure that places it among the countries perceived as “highly corrupt”, behind Tunisia, Bahrain or even Belarus.
In order to measure the extent of the scourge, it should be remembered that the World Bank has estimated that corruption costs the Kingdom of Morocco 5% of GDP each year.
