The court of first instance of Kénitra sentenced, on Monday, two people arrested at the beginning of February in Sidi Taïbi (11 km south of Kénitra) to ten months and five months in prison for fraud and theft of electrical energy.

The two people had been arrested following an investigation by the Royal Gendarmerie after a demonstration by several inhabitants of the shanty towns of the Sidi Taïbi commune to demand the connection of their homes to the water and electricity network.

The court sentenced Mr B., who is a local official of the Labour Party, to ten months in prison and a 500 DH fine for fraud, and H.H., an electrician, to five months in prison accompanied by a fine of 500 DH for theft of electrical energy.

Their trial had been postponed several times and the court had refused to grant them provisional release.

In this case, eight people had been arrested at the beginning of last February and presented to the public prosecutor's office, which had then decided to release six of them for lack of evidence and to prosecute two in a state of arrest.