Footage posted online showed the 17-year-old's arms and legs covered in burns
The violence against the teenager, whose name is Khadija, has sparked outrage
Updated 21 May 2019
AFP
RABAT: The trial of 12 men accused of kidnapping and gang raping a Moroccan teenager in her village last August opened Tuesday in the central town of Beni Mellal and was adjourned at the request of both sides.
Lawyer Ibrahim Hachane, who said his client, the plaintiff, was not in court, told AFP that the case was adjourned to June 25.
The accused, aged between 19 and 29, are being tried on several charges including human trafficking, rape, kidnapping and forming an organised gang.
Conviction on a trafficking charge can carry a 30-year prison sentence.
Another suspect is to be tried separately behind closed doors on June 11 as he was a minor at the time of the alleged offences, Hachane said.
Khadija Okkarou’s showed horrific scars allegedly from cigarette burns and tattoos carved into parts of her body. (AFP)
He said the accused had confessed to police but most of them had retracted before a magistrate.
In a video posted online, Khadija Okkarou said members of a "dangerous gang" had kidnapped and held her prisoner for two months, raping and torturing her.
She showed horrific scars allegedly from cigarette burns and tattoos carved into parts of her body.
The case has stirred outrage in Morocco, where an official report has found that more than 90 percent of Moroccan victims of violence had failed to file a complaint.
Rape victims in Morocco are often subject to a double trauma as its conservative society blames them for their ordeal.
Lebanon ex-central bank chief's corruption case being sent to top court, officials say
Updated 10 sec ago
AP
BEIRUT: The corruption case of Lebanon's former central bank governor, who is widely blamed for the country’s economic meltdown, has been transferred to the country's highest court, judicial officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Riad Salameh was released on $14 million bail in September after a year in prison while awaiting trial in Lebanon on corruption charges, including embezzlement and illicit enrichment. The trial of Salameh, 75, and his two legal associates, Marwan Khoury and Michel Toueini, will now be heard at the Court of Cassation, according to a copy of the notice obtained by the AP. Salameh and the others will be issued with arrest warrants if they don't show up for trial at the court. No trial date has been set yet. Salameh denies the charges. The court’s final ruling can't be appealed, according to the four officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren't authorized to speak with the media. In September 2024, he was charged with the embezzlement of $42 million, with the court later adding charges of illicit enrichment over an apartment rented in France, supposedly to be a substitute office for the central bank if needed. Officials have said that Salameh had rented from his former romantic partner for about $500,000 annually. He was once celebrated for steering Lebanon’s economic recovery, after a 15-year civil war, upon starting his long tenure in 1993 and keeping the fragile economy afloat during long spells of political gridlock and turmoil. But in 2023, he left his post after three decades with several European countries investigating allegations of financial crimes. Meanwhile, much of the Lebanese blame his policies for sparking a fiscal crisis in late 2019 where depositors lost their savings, and the value of the local currency collapsed. On top of the inquiry in Lebanon, he is being investigated by a handful of European countries over various corruption charges. In August 2023, the United States, United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on Salameh. Salameh has repeatedly denied allegations of corruption, embezzlement and illicit enrichment. He insists that his wealth comes from inherited properties, investments and his previous job as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Lebanon’s current central bank governor, Karim Souaid, announced last week that he's filing legal complaints against a former central bank governor and former banking official who diverted funds from the bank to what he said were four shell companies in the Cayman Islands. He didn't name either individual. But Souaid said that Lebanon's central bank would become a plaintiff in the country's investigation into Forry Associates. The U.S. Treasury, upon sanctioning Salameh and his associates, described Forry Associates as “a shell company owned by Raja (Salameh’s brother) in the British Virgin Islands” used to divert about $330 million in transactions related to the central bank. Several European countries, among them France, Germany, and Luxembourg, have been investigating the matter, freezing bank accounts and assets related to Salameh and his associates, with little to no cooperation from the central bank and Lebanese authorities. Souaid said that he will travel later this month to Paris to exchange “highly sensitive” information as France continues its inquiries.
