A 49-year-old Franco-Moroccan, convicted in Morocco for adultery, could lose his French nationality over it, unveiled the Paris public prosecutor’s office.
Le Parisien media first broke the news, explaining that the French authorities initiated legal proceedings in May 2022 to oppose the awarding of nationality, as confirmed by BFMTV.
The Paris judicial court’s nationality chamber had a case hearing on Thursday, January 1, and is expected to announce its final verdict on February 29.
The man in question married a French woman in 2008 and moved to Morocco together. The pair is parents to two children. On December 17, 2020, after a decade and a half of cohabitation, he applied with the French consulate in Marrakech to become a French national.
To acquire French nationality, one must live in the country for at least four years, as stipulated by Article 21-2 of the Civil Code of French law. On February 17, 2021, a certificate of the couple’s community of life was established and the man formally received French nationality on May 28, 2021.
“He requested French nationality for his children, who are also French, it is a right, but also so as not to have to apply for a visa each time he goes to France with his partner and his children to see his wife’s family”, explained Yassine Yakouti, his lawyer, a statement to BFMTV.
The prosecution used the man’s August 2021 conviction for adultery by the Marrakech court of first instance—which sentenced him to six months in prison—as justification for its ruling.
The adultery sentence was confirmed on appeal in October 2021. The legal actions kicked off after a complaint that his wife made at the start of the summer of 2021 after learning of her husband’s extramarital affair.
The prosecution relied on the statements of this Franco-Moroccan’s wife, with whom he has subsequently filed for divorce.
She said that the couple had been living in separate rooms for two years in a letter dated February 2022, submitted to the French consulate, in which she requested the revocation of nationality from her former spouse.
During an interview with the consul in Marrakech, she also stated that she was unaware of her husband’s infidelity when she signed the community of life agreement in February 2021 and that she would not have signed it if she had known.
Adultery does not by itself mean that there is no longer a community. Had he not shared a home with her, cared for the kids, and engaged in family activities, there would have been no community of life. But according to the man’s attorney, that is untrue, explained BFMTV.
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