The lawyer for the civil parties announced that her request for referral to French justice had been accepted. Objective: to ensure that the former French boss, involved in a vast sex scandal, is effectively prosecuted and tried.
The lawyer for the civil parties in the case of the sex scandal involving the former French boss Jacques Bouthier and several of his collaborators in Morocco, made the official announcement on Saturday, July 15, during a press conference in Rabat. “The Court of Tangier has accepted our request for the creation of a rogatory commission in France. The procedure is in progress”, indicated Me Aïcha Guellaa, also president of the Moroccan Association for the Rights of Victims (AMDV).
According to Me Guellaa, this commission will aim to audition Jacques Bouthier, who is at the same time indicted in France for, among other things, “trafficking in human beings” and “rape of a minor”. Aged 76, the former CEO of the insurance brokerage group Assu 2000 was released on bail and under judicial supervision, for medical reasons, in March 2023, after ten months of detention.
“No hope in French justice”
“French justice did not have the courage in the face of pecuniary 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 can do justice to the victims,” she added.
If Jacques Bouthier is not prosecuted at this stage in Morocco, eight of his collaborators – six Moroccans, including two women, and two French – are subject to prosecution for “human trafficking” and “sexual harassment”, “incitement to debauchery” and “non-denunciation of attempted or committed crimes”.
Four of them are currently in detention while the others are on bail. Their trial is due to resume on July 25 before the Criminal Trial Chamber of the Tangier Court of Appeal.
Six civil plaintiffs
In addition, “a search note was launched by the Attorney General of the Court of Appeal of Tangier against a suspect who fled to France,” said lawyer Abdelfattah Zahrach. This is the former general manager of the Tangier subsidiary of Assu 2000 (renamed Vilavi), a Franco-Tunisian, according to the AMDV.
The case was initiated in Morocco after complaints from former employees filed in June 2022 in Tangier. The alleged facts occurred between 2018 and April 2022 in branches of the group, headed at the time by Jacques Bouthier.
A total of six plaintiffs filed civil suits. They testified to systematic sexual harassment, threats and intimidation within the insurance broker in Tangier, in a climate of social insecurity.
