Accused by American justice of being the author of corporate cyberattacks, the young Frenchman Sébastien Raoult has been detained in Rabat since June 2022. The United States obtained his extradition on January 25. He faces 116 years in prison according to his lawyer.
“The extradition took place on January 25 at Casablanca airport on board a flight to New York. The operation was carried out by FBI agents”, specifies a police source who requested anonymity.
The plane took off around 3:50 p.m. (2:50 p.m. GMT) from Casablanca International Airport bound for JFK Airport in New York, local news site Hespress said. It should land around 23:00 GMT.
Accused by American justice of being the author of corporate cyberattacks, the young Frenchman Sébastien Raoult has been detained in Rabat since June 2022. The United States obtained his extradition on January 25. He faces 116 years in prison according to his lawyer.
“The extradition took place on January 25 at Casablanca airport on board a flight to New York. The operation was carried out by FBI agents”, specifies a police source who requested anonymity.
The plane took off around 3:50 p.m. (2:50 p.m. GMT) from Casablanca International Airport bound for JFK Airport in New York, local news site Hespress said. It should land around 23:00 GMT.
Sébastien Raoult is accused by American justice of “conspiracy to commit electronic fraud and abuse”, “serious identity theft”, and of being a member of the “ShinyHUnters”, a group of “cybercriminals” suspected by American justice. to be behind corporate cyberattacks.
Among the victims would be Github, owned by the American computer giant Microsoft, according to experts interviewed by AFP.
This 21-year-old former computer science student from Epinal (eastern France) was arrested on May 31, 2022, at Rabat-Salé airport on the basis of
Residing with his parents in Epinal, the young man was in his second year of computer studies when he stopped his training in December 2021, according to his family. “He was in a phase of rupture with studies. He wanted to live, to discover the world and to travel and had the impression of wasting his time at school “, explained his father Paul Raoult to AFP
He had been detained since June 2 in Tiflet 2 prison, near Rabat.
His lawyer, Me Philippe Ohayon, had seized the UN Committee against Torture at the end of December, fearing his imminent extradition to the United States, but this body refused to register his request. He has since seized the UN Human Rights Committee.
” Rushed ” Extradition
“While the Human Rights Committee is seized, it seems that the extradition was rushed. This kind of maneuver between the United States and France must never happen again,” lamented the lawyer.
“Here, the French and Americans agreed to bring about the extradition of a Frenchman for acts committed in France within the framework of an investigation led by a French investigating judge. This is unheard of in the judicial history”, accuses Maître Ohayon.
In the United States, the ex-student faces up to 116 years in prison if convicted, according to the lawyer.
Asked by AFP on Wednesday, Quai d’Orsay spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said that”the timetable for Mr. Sébastien Raoult’s extradition is a matter of sovereign relations between Morocco and the United States”.
On July 20, the Moroccan Court of Cassation, ruling as a first and last resort, issued a favorable opinion on the American request for the extradition of Sébastien Raoult.
Diplomatic crisis
The extradition decree was signed at the end of December by Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akkhanouch, according to the usual procedure. Upon receipt of the executive order, the United States had 30 days to release the defendant.
This extradition comes in the context of a persistent diplomatic crisis between Morocco and France, accused in recent days of having “orchestrated” an anti-Moroccan campaign in Brussels. Moroccan parliamentarians and media have denounced the recent vote of a resolution by the European Parliament which expressed concern about the deterioration of press freedom in Morocco and allegations of corruption weighing on this country.
