The 21 -year -old French student is accused of having participated in the computer hacking of several companies, notably American. He risks more than a hundred years in prison in the United States.
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The threat of a trial across the Atlantic and a hundred years in prison is closer to Sébastien Raoult. In a decision rendered on July 20 and revealed on August 8 by the France-Presse agency, the Court of Cassation of Morocco pronounced a “favorable opinion” at the request of extradition of the 21-year-old French to the United States. The family of the young man accused of cybercrime always hopes that he is recovered in time by France.
Originally from Epinal, Sébastien Raoult was arrested on May 31 at Rabat airport, based on a red sheet issued by Interpol at the request of the United States. American federal police (FBI) suspect him of belonging to the shinyhuters, a cybergang that takes his name from the universe of Pokémon and which specializes in the flight and sale of data.
According to the indictment dated June 10, consulted by Le Monde, the United States accuses Sébastien Raoult of having participated in the computer hacking of several companies, notably American. According to the maximum penalties incurred for the nine offenses accused, he risks more than 100 years in prison for “conspiracy in order to commit fraud and electronic abuse”, “electronic fraud” or “serious identity usurpation”.
A “denial of sovereignty in addition to a denial of justice”, protests the lawyer of Sébastien Raoult, M e Philippe Ohayon, who renewed his request to open Judicial investigation in France, synonymous with arrest warrant and extradition to France. “We are going to blame us for short-circuiting American justice, he is ahead of it. But it is the Americans who have short-circuited a file which should give rise to a French instruction.” According to him, the hacking of Companies – Certainly foreign – would have taken place from France, making French justice competent.
“Moroccan justice was asked by American justice and we do not have the possibility at this stage to intervene,” the French Minister of Justice said on Wednesday August 3, Eric Dupond-Moretti, on BFM- TV.
A decisive role for the French authorities
The question could however take a highly political turning point, as evidenced by certain previous ones. According to the Moroccan procedure, the favorable opinion of the Court of Cassation can indeed go into application only after the signing by the head of the government of a decree authorizing extradition to the applicant State. At this stage, possible diplomatic pressures, sometimes contradictory, can then intervene.
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