The Royal Gendarmerie in Deroua questioned Adil Benlaidi, president of the Real Estate Development Association for Equipment and Construction in Deroua, following a complaint filed against him by Redouane Darwish, the former president of the Deroua commune, with the King's Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance in Berrechid. This followed his publication of a “post” on his personal social media account, which contained information from an article recently published in Hespress regarding the postponement of the hearing in the case of the former communal official before the Criminal Chamber of the Casablanca Court of Appeal on charges of embezzlement and squandering of public funds, accompanied by his own personal commentary.
The questioning of the real estate developer continued until late Monday evening, before the Royal Gendarmerie center in Deroua received instructions from the Public Prosecution to present him in a state of release tomorrow, Wednesday. Meanwhile, the center witnessed an influx of members and councilors from both the majority and opposition in the Deroua communal council, belonging to the Berrechid province, as well as human rights and civil society activists who arrived to support the accused. This was the subject of a solidarity statement issued by the Civil Society Council for Monitoring Local Affairs in the city of Deroua, where Ibrahim Boukrichi, the council's president, requested in a statement that judicial authorities refrain from dealing with complaints aimed at silencing what he described as ”free voices”.
The council condemned the actions, which it considered to reflect a “moral weakness and lack of sense of responsibility” on the part of the former president, while calling on all civil and political actors to “confront these behaviors that harm civil and political work”, confirming its solidarity with the accused real estate developer and calling on him to continue his work without fear or hesitation, considering the former communal official's behavior an attempt to ”muzzle mouths and intimidate human rights and civil activists seeking to defend the city's issues”.
Adil Benlaidi, president of the Real Estate Development Association for Equipment and Construction in Deroua, stated to Hespress that the complaint filed against him by the former president of the Deroua commune is not based on sound legal justifications, explaining that he published general information mentioned in the media regarding the prosecution of this former official before the judiciary, and discussed the management of local affairs in the city, stressing that the motives for the complaint are primarily related to settling political scores; he also stated that the president of the communal council, whose term ended in 2015, had approached him during the 2021 elections to support him, as he was the president of a developers' association in the region, but he refused, which led to the formation of resentment against him by the complainant, who lost those elections.
It is noteworthy that the Primary Criminal Chamber at the Casablanca Court of Appeal postponed the hearing last week in the case of embezzlement and squandering of public funds involving the former president of the Deroua commune from the Justice and Development Party, Redouane Darwish, to February 6th, based on previous reports by the Court of Auditors and complaints from opposition members in the communal council, located in the suburbs of Casablanca, which concerned manipulations in contracts and the acceptance of checks as a guarantee.
The post Complaint from the former president of Deroua commune drags a real estate developer to court appeared first on Hespress - Moroccan electronic newspaper.
