Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- A former Moroccan ambassador to Hungary has been charged with” human trafficking”, “sexual exploitation of minors”, and “corruption of minors” charges. The investigation revealed that the ambassador had sexually exploited five minor girls, whom he had lured with money to his villa, located in the Souissi neighborhood in the capital Rabat. The ambassador admitted to the charges against him, claiming that the minors accompanied him by their own will. The accused former ambassador, now 86 years old, has been remanded in prison, while his wife is being held for further investigation.
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An 86-year-old former Moroccan ambassador to Hungary has been arrested and charged with sexual exploitation of minors, following an investigation that was sparked by the theft of his mobile phone. The man, who held the position of Moroccan ambassador to Hungary from the late 1980s to the early 1990s before retiring in 1997, was born in 1937.
According to reports, the former ambassador was walking in Rabat’s well-known “Souk L’Gza,” a market mostly for used electronics and second-hand items, and was able to identify his stolen phone, displayed for sale at a vendor’s stall in the market. When the vendor refused to hand it back without payment, the former ambassador decided to head to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint.
The police began investigating the case and were able to identify the young girl who sold the phone to the second-hand items merchant. During the investigation, the girl revealed the reason behind stealing the phone. She said it was planned with other minors who happened to study in the same school, in a bet to delete sexual videos they appeared in. They said they sold the phone after deleting the videos.
The authorities retrieved the phone and submitted it for further investigation to retrieve the deleted videos, which they successfully did. The videos showed explicit footage documenting the terrible sexual exploitation the minors had endured at the hands of the former ambassador in his luxurious villa in the Souissi district.
The authorities then confronted the former ambassador and his wife, a French citizen, who was aware of his actions, and brought them in for questioning. During the interrogation, the former ambassador admitted to the charges against him, considering his acts to be normal, and claiming that the minors accompanied him by their own will to spend enjoyable times at his villa in Souissi.
The former ambassador was subsequently remanded in Salé 2 prison, while his wife is currently in custody pending further investigation.
According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), child sexual exploitation is a major problem in Morocco, with many children being subjected to sexual abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor.
The UNODC report found that children were particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, especially those from poor and marginalized communities.
The Moroccan Times.
