Moroccan ex-minister hit with five-year jail sentence

Moroccan opposition figure and former minister Mohamed Ziane has been sentenced to five years in prison while serving a three-year term in another case, his lawyer said on Saturday.

The former Rabat bar association president was convicted on charges of "embezzlement and squandering of public funds", the lawyer Ali Reda Ziane, who is also his son, told AFP.

The charges relate to funds the Moroccan Liberal Party (PML) - of which Mohamed Ziane was founder and chief - received in a 2015 electoral campaign.

"This is a form of life sentence for an 81-year-old man while legally nothing has been proven", said the lawyer, who plans to appeal the ruling.

Ziane, who was human rights minister between 1995 and 1996, has been in detention since November 2022, after being sentenced the three years on appeal.

The opposition figure had become known in recent years for statements criticising the authorities in Morocco, particularly the intelligence services.

He said he was being judged "because of his opinions".

The proceedings follow an interior ministry complaint on seven counts, among them contempt of public officials and justice, insults against a constituted body, defamation, adultery and sexual harassment.

In the same case, the financial crimes chamber of the Rabat appeals court sentenced the PML treasurer and a party administrative employee to five years in prison and one year in prison plus a one-year suspended sentence, respectively.