On Wednesday, a Moroccan court sentenced seven officials from the Moroccan branch of the insurance company Velavi, formerly known as Aso 2000, to between ten and four years in prison, in a case related to human trafficking and sexual harassment.
This case began in June 2022, when six former female employees at the “Velavi” branch (formerly known as Asso 2000) filed complaints against Jacques Boutier and some of his associates, accusing them of sexual harassment. This coincided with Boutier’s arrest in France for investigation in a case of human trafficking and rape of a minor.
The Moroccan judiciary decided to prosecute eight company officials on charges including “human trafficking” and “sexual harassment,” and their trial began in March 2023 in Tangier.
Lawyer Aisha Klaa reported that the court sentenced one of the accused to ten years in prison, and four years to six others, and imposed a fine of 100,000 dirhams (about 10,000 dollars) on each of them. While one defendant was sentenced to six months in prison with a suspended sentence, the court also ruled collective compensation of 100,000 dirhams (9,300 euros) for each of the six plaintiffs.
The facts of the case date back to the period between 2018 and April 2022 in the offices of the Asso 2000 company in Tangier, which was headed by Jacques Boutier at the time.
It is worth noting that a French court had allowed the temporary release of Boutier in March 2023 for medical reasons, after ten months of detention, in exchange for him being subjected to judicial oversight and paying bail of 500,000 euros.
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