The Criminal Chamber in charge of financial crimes at the Rabat Court of Appeal decided, on Monday, to resume on May 28 the examination of the trial of the President of the Municipal Council of the city of Sidi Yahya el Gharb, prosecuted for corruption.

In his plea, during Monday's session, the defence considered that the public action initiated against the accused remains inadmissible, in the absence of tangible evidence justifying the application of Article 248 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The defence described the case as “hollow, due to the allegations it contains.”

Noting the lack of material elements in this case, given the gaps in the judicial police reports, as well as the contradictions between the report of travel, arrest, and observation and the complainant's statements, the defence requested the acquittal of the accused for lack of evidence.

The representative of the public prosecutor's office had, during the previous hearing, requested the maximum penalty, based on the flagrant offence as proof of the accused's guilt.

The President of the Sidi Yahya Municipal Council, Mohamed Hsaïni, also a member of the Chamber of Councillors, is accused of having “demanded and received a sum of money for mediation in a case by using influence peddling.”

He was arrested, at the beginning of January, in the act of corruption on the order of the public prosecutor's office, in possession of 20 million centimes (200,000 dirhams) which had allegedly been given to him by a contractor in charge of road surfacing works in the city of Sidi Yahya el Gharb, falling under the Sidi Slimane province.

This is the fifth time that the examination of the trial has been postponed.