Tangier Mayor transferred to prison as investigation into alleged election fraud continues

The King’s Prosecutor General at the Tangier Court of Appeal has announced the arrest of two additional suspects in the ongoing election ballot tampering investigation, detailing recovered surveillance footage and phone records that expose a coordinated forgery operation.

According to a new press release from the Public Prosecution, preliminary investigations indicate that an accountant (the first suspect) illegally marked stolen ballots in favor of a specific political party at the behest of his employer (the second suspect). The operation took place inside a hotel apartment where the employer and two other previously detained individuals arrived carrying two suitcases filled with ballots. The four men then systematically marked the voting papers.

Investigators achieved a major breakthrough by recovering deliberately deleted security camera footage from the hotel. The video confirmed the presence of the employer, the accountant, and the two other detained suspects inside the apartment. The footage also captured a suspect removing and returning the ballots, explicitly linking the bags in the video to the two suitcases subsequently seized at polling stations.

Additionally, a technical forensic analysis of the employer’s mobile phone revealed multiple calls made to two of the previously arrested suspects in the days leading up to and during the election.

Based on the recovered evidence and forensic reports, the Public Prosecution has requested a formal investigation and ordered both newly arrested individuals into pre-trial detention. They are facing felony charges for violating electoral operations and participating in forgery, with the Prosecutor General affirming that authorities will continue to pursue the case to ensure the strict application of the law.

The public prosecutor has also ordered Tangier Mayor Monir Limouri to be held in custody and transferred to prison following his appearance before the prosecutor after 72 hours in police custody.

Limouri, who also heads the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima regional branch of Morocco’s Authenticity and Modernity Party, was brought before the prosecutor after the completion of the legal period of garde à vue.

The prosecutor’s decision means Limouri will remain in custody as the judicial proceedings continue. The specific allegations against him were not immediately disclosed.

The post Tangier Mayor transferred to prison as investigation into alleged election fraud continues appeared first on HESPRESS English - Morocco News.