The verdict was delivered on Friday at 10 pm, after 11 hours of deliberation. It was pronounced by Master Abdelali Lamkhatri, president, in a courtroom packed to capacity due to the large number of people prosecuted both in a state of freedom and in a state of arrest (42 people) and the public who have been following this case since the El Jadida Court of Appeal took it up at the beginning of March 2011.

This trial concerns the case of the extension of the El Jadida provincial building, in which a significant number of defendants are prosecuted for forgery of documents and embezzlement of public property or participation in the embezzlement of public property. Thus, the provincial architect Mohamed Fares, the project architect Mohamed Senhaji, and the contractor Ouâl Mahfoud are prosecuted in a state of arrest.

Six other civil servants are also prosecuted, but in a state of freedom (1 engineer, 4 technicians, a finance agent, the former head of the procurement department who is retired).

The facts: In 1999, a public call for tenders was launched by the El Jadida province to choose the company that would be in charge of the extension of the province's building. Ouâl Mahfoud's company won the contract. However, during the establishment of statement no. 15, it was discovered that the price of the orange pipe used as a sheath for electrical wires was exorbitant: 2,300.00 dirhams per linear metre (80.00 dirhams for a 20-metre roll at any hardware store). The provincial architect, Mr Fares, who had just taken over the directives of the province's urban planning division, refused to validate this payment. Feeling aggrieved, the contractor, after completion of the work, resorted to the courts, which ruled in his favour. The El Jadida province was ordered to pay more than 3.2 million dirhams to the company, an amount totalling the linear metres of the orange pipe embedded in the walls of this building. It should be noted that the price of this pipe does not appear on the price table of the specifications, apparently so as not to influence the financial offer. It was ticked separately and designated as P.M. This means "price for memory." A designation that some project owners resort to when it is an optional service and not fundamental to the work to be carried out. This designation therefore remains non-contractual and requires an additional written document (minutes) before any commitment.

Following a letter from the former governor of the province who, it seems, was not satisfied with the heavy sentence, an investigation commission was dispatched and submitted its report accusing the aforementioned persons, specifically highlighting the 2,300 dirhams that the commission considered to be falsified because the digit '2' was added there, as it is not on the same line where the number '300' is inscribed. The file was subsequently transferred to the justice system, which rendered its verdict: For forgery and embezzlement of public funds: Ouâl Mahfoud is sentenced to 2 years of firm imprisonment.

For participation in the embezzlement of public funds, Senhaji, the architect, is sentenced to pay a fine of 5,000.00 dirhams and one year of firm imprisonment (this architect is already serving a 4-year prison sentence in another similar case with the Moulay Abdellah commune).

Abderrahim Tarrach, former head of the procurement department in retirement, prosecuted in a state of freedom for participation in the embezzlement of public funds, was sentenced to 1 and a half years of firm imprisonment.

All these defendants were ordered to pay, jointly and severally, a fine of 200,000.00 dirhams, and to repay to the Moroccan State the embezzled amount, namely more than 3.2 million dirhams. The other six accused were acquitted.

The second file concerns the El Jadida municipality, in which 33 people are prosecuted, including 19 in a state of arrest, for various charges. It involves the former president of the El Jadida urban commune and former parliamentarian Abdellatif Toumi, his two brothers, the former pasha of the city Mostapha El Bakkali, the commune manager, two commune members, civil servants, businessmen, and operators of public property.

Let us recall that an investigation commission had discovered several malfunctions during the period from 2004 to 2007 and had established a report relating these abuses involving more than 60 people, including 36 prosecuted by the justice system.

Friday, 18 March 2011, was therefore a day like no other, both for the 17 suspects imprisoned, to whom would be added the former pasha of the city of El Jadida and the second brother of the former commune president of the city, and for the fourteen others who are prosecuted in a state of freedom. Almost 10 months have passed between the investigating judge's inquiry and the hearings presided over by Master Abdelali Lamkhatri.

During this trial, about twenty lawyers pleaded. The Bâtonnier of El Jadida, Abdelkbir Mougare, was the last to take the defence of five accused.

Abdellatif Toumi received a two-year prison sentence, one of which was suspended, for having ousted competitors from a public contract, offered communal resources for free to third parties, illegally exempted taxpayers from paying taxes...

Mohamed Karenar was sentenced to 3 months of firm imprisonment and a fine of 500.00 dirhams for breach of trust, and Youssef Bayazid to 6 months of firm imprisonment for forgery of official documents.

Acquittal was pronounced in favour of 30 accused.

The lawyers of El Jadida and Sidi Bennour elect their Bâtonnier

The lawyers of El Jadida and Sidi Bennour elected their new bureau on Friday afternoon, the mission of the old bureau led by the Bâtonnier Abdelkabir Mougare having come to an end.

For the position of the new Bâtonnier, the competition was fierce between the four candidates in the running: Mourid Bouchaib, Aslaoui Bouchaib, Hamid Bastili, and Fajar Mohamed. It was necessary to proceed to a second round of voting to decide between the competitors. And it is finally Master Hamid Bastili who became the new Bâtonnier of the Bar Association of the city of El Jadida and Sidi Bennour for a period of three years.