Two French journalists accused of blackmail by king of Morocco in court

Eric Laurent and Catherine Graciet were committed not to publish anything against the leader of the Cherifian kingdom in exchange for a large sum of money.

by Christophe Ayad

Accept money so as not to disclose compromising information for someone is contrary to journalistic ethics. Asking for the fact of not publishing this information is illegal. This is called blackmail. It is in the space created by this difference that the trial, on Monday, January 16, of two journalists accused of having wanted to sing the king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, in 2015.

Seven and a half years later, Eric Laurent and Catherine Graciet appeared free before the 10 e chamber of the Paris court. He, 75, small and precarious health, seated on a chair during the hearing; She, 48, drawn up on tiptoe as soon as she addresses the court, chaired by judge Edmond Brunaud. Until their arrest at the Raphael hotel, very close to the Champs-Elysées, on August 27, 2015, in Paris, with 80,000 euros divided into two envelopes after a long interview with an emissary from the Chérifian monarchy, L ‘Hicham Naciri lawyer, they had the reputation of solid investigators, authors of several works separately and, together, of the predatory king: low hand on Morocco (the threshold), in 2012.

In the summer of 2015, they were preparing the continuation and had to complete their manuscript in November. It all starts on July 23, when Eric Laurent takes attachment with the Royal Cabinet for an appointment with his private secretary, Mounir Al-Majidi. The request leads to a first meeting on August 11, in Paris, between Mr. Laurent and an emissary, M ^e

é> naciri, star of the bar and son of a former Minister of Justice in the Morocco. Catherine Graciet is absent, on vacation.

“They want to change their life”

As M ^e eric Moutet, the lawyer for M ^{me graciet, this meeting of August 11, at the Royal-Monceau hotel, is “the major fact of the file”. It is there, from the eighth minute, according to the recording of the meeting provided to the public prosecutor by M e naciri in his complaint, that it is a question of a transaction. The whole question is who proposed the first. According to lawyers for the civil party, Ralph Boussier and Antoine Vey, defenders of the Kingdom of Morocco, the exchange is clear: “They want to change their life. They have an opportunity. They have no pounds (…) It’s a good life “, mocks M e Boussier. M e vey quotes a sentence pronounced by Eric Laurent: “I have a figure,” he says.}

The lawyer general, Audrey Durrieux, also thinks: “At no time Eric Laurent does something other than negotiating a sum of money” during this meeting. As for Catherine Graciet, she believes that “she is far from passive”. Mr. Laurent, he disputes the integrity of the registration. He claims to have spoken at length with his interlocutor of a possible meeting with Mr. Al-Majidi, something which no longer appears at all in the registration subject to justice. “Very quickly, we rock on a transaction,” he continues. “It is he who offers me. I never said that (…). It was very strange. We destroyed the content of this recording.” There follows a surrealist dialogue on figures, which lead to the amount of 3 million euros.

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