The Casablanca Criminal Court has decided to postpone the trial of MP Babour Sghir, prosecuted for fraud, to February 16 following his request to appear in person.
Since January, Babour Sghir, UC MP, has been in pre-trial detention following a fraud complaint filed by Bank of Africa (BOA), reports Médias24. The amount of the scam would amount to more than 600 million dirhams. The elected official’s defense denied the charges. She evokes a simple case of commercial debts.
Opened on January 26, the parliamentarian’s trial continues. At Wednesday’s hearing, he appeared by videoconference before the Casablanca Criminal Court. Declining his identity, he claims to be “unemployed”. “I had nothing left before my arrest,” he says, before making a request: to attend his face-to-face trial. A request that received the assent of the judge. The latter postponed the trial to February 16.
If the court finds him guilty of fraud, the elected official risks a prison sentence of one to five years and a fine of 500 to 5,000 dirhams, or a prison sentence of two to ten years. and a maximum fine of 100,000 dirham if he appealed to the public with a view to “the issuance of shares, bonds, warrants, shares or titles whatsoever, either of a commercial or industrial enterprise”, in accordance with the provisions of Article 540 of the Penal Code.
