Multiple arrests target collaborators of French millionaire accused of raping Moroccan women

The Public Prosecutor in Tangier decided to bring six people to justice in relation to French insurance multimillionaire Jacques Bouthier’s sexual assault case, five of whom are currently in custody.

The multimillionaire, accused of various acts of “human trafficking, sexual harassment, and verbal and moral violence,” between 2018 and this year, is already incarcerated in France for raping a minor.

In total, six employees of a call center in Tangier have filed complaints against Bouthier, causing a snowball effect, with more victims coming forwards with their assault stories.

This septuagenarian is now prosecuted in Morocco for “human trafficking, indecent assault, sexual harassment and verbal and psychological violence,” says Aicha Guellaa, lawyer for the complainants and president of the Moroccan Association for Victims’ Rights (AMDV).

Following a judicial investigation on the instructions of the Public Prosecutor in the city of Tangier, several people were brought before the courts on this Tuesday.

“The six defendants in question were questioned in the presence of the victims as well as the defense. They were referred to the investigating judge,” said Aicha Guellaa.

In France, the list of defendants in the case rose to eight, according to Le Monde newspaper, which stated that one of the main defendants works as a private security guard, a former boxer, who was charged with belonging to a criminal gang and not reporting sexual assaults he was aware of.

Another accomplice is a police officer from the La Courneuve center on the outskirts of Paris, who is being prosecuted on charges of complicity in corruption and disclosure of professional secrets.

The police are investigating whether they were part of the task force that Bouthier set up to cover up the case.

Four other police officers are also under administrative investigation, according to the sources of the French radio station RTL, who confirmed that the boxer contacted the police officer of the “La Courneuve” center to monitor the movements of a Moroccan victim, who was threatening the French millionaire to file a complaint with the security services in Paris.

In order to expand the scope of the search, the police officer hired some of his colleagues to verify the presence of the Moroccan victim in her home; This prompted the police command to open an administrative investigation into these officers, knowing that one of them has since been acquitted, according to the Liberation newspaper.

As for the Moroccan investigations, the investigative judge decided to place the five defendants in the case in the local prison of Tangiers to research the crimes of the complaints, and to follow up on the sixth defendant in a state of release.

These developments come weeks after lawyers assigned by the Moroccan Association for Victims’ Rights submitted 6 complaints, for human trafficking, defilement, sexual harassment, verbal and psychological violence.

After the judicial police of Tangiers started the judicial investigation, based on the instructions of the General Prosecutor at the Tangier’s Court of Appeal, the defendants were brought before him last Tuesday, to decide to refer them to the investigation judiciary after questioning them.

Bouthier was a well-known businessman and ranked among the top 500 French fortunes.

He was indicted in France for alleged rape of minors and human trafficking. He has been detained on suspicion of having set up a system to satisfy his pedophile tendencies by recruiting teenage girls from vulnerable backgrounds.

Anonymously, the victims had described to the media a climate of trivialized sexual harassment and blackmail for employment in his company.

Since May 21, Jacques Bouthier has remained in custody. The former executive, whose assets are estimated at 160 million euros, has already been indicted and remanded in custody since May 21 for “human trafficking” against minors, “attempted rape of a minor over 15 years old”, “resorting to prostitution of a minor” and “sexual assault of a minor under 15 years old.”