French Journalists on Trial for ‘Trying to Blackmail' Moroccan King

Morocco's King Mohammed VI (MAP)
Morocco's King Mohammed VI (MAP)
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French Journalists on Trial for ‘Trying to Blackmail' Moroccan King

Morocco's King Mohammed VI (MAP)
Morocco's King Mohammed VI (MAP)

Two French journalists will go on trial Monday in Paris on suspicion of trying to blackmail Morocco's King Mohammed VI, demanding €2 million in 2015 in exchange for not publishing a damaging book about the monarch.

The case dates back to the summer of 2015, which saw secret meetings in hotels, private recordings, police surveillance, and exchanged funds.

In 2012, journalists Eric Laurent and Catherine Graciet published a book that contained damaging claims about the King and was banned in Morocco.

Three years later, they signed a new publishing contract to prepare a book on the same topic.

On July 23, 2015, the two journalists contacted the Moroccan palace officials, informing them they had written a book on Mohammed VI. A first meeting was organized in Paris with Moroccan lawyer Hicham Naciri on August 11 in a Parisian hotel bar.

During the meeting, Laurent announced plans to publish the book in early 2016, which included information probably "embarrassing" to Rabat. However, accounts of what followed differed significantly.

According to the journalist, Naciri offered a financial agreement not to publish the book.

The Moroccan government alerted French authorities to the alleged blackmail, and a further meeting was arranged, this time under police surveillance.

A third meeting was set for August 27, 2015, in another hotel where Laurent and Graciet signed a contract and received 80,000 euros in cash.

The pair were arrested as they left the establishment "with the proceeds of their crime in their pockets" the lawyer said.

The meetings were recorded, but the recordings were deemed illegal by the defense team.

The Court of Appeal rejected the appeal request in November 2017.

Journalists Eric Laurent, 75, and Catherine Graciet, 48, were initially accused of extortion, but the charges were dropped at the end of the judicial investigation, which lasted nearly six years.

Laurent is a former reporter for Radio France, Le Figaro Magazine, and France Culture. He has written many controversial books, one of which deals with September 11, 2011.

Graciet worked in Rabat and published books on Morocco and Libya.

During the investigation, they admitted to accepting a contract to "give up" the book, whose geopolitical consequences "worried" them, but they denied any threat or extortion.

Speaking to French daily Le Monde on Friday, Graciet's lawyer Eric Moutet insisted blackmail was out of character for his client and hinted that the arrest resulted from a Moroccan government sting.

"I don't yet have complete access to the case files, but this whole business stinks of a setup," he said.

Laurent's defense lawyer argued that the two defendants fell into a trap set by Moroccan intelligence.



Netanyahu: Israel Retains Right to Resume Gaza Fighting

FILED - 03 March 2020, Israel, Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers an address. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa
FILED - 03 March 2020, Israel, Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers an address. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa
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Netanyahu: Israel Retains Right to Resume Gaza Fighting

FILED - 03 March 2020, Israel, Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers an address. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa
FILED - 03 March 2020, Israel, Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers an address. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa

Israel retains the right to resume war in Gaza with US backing should the second stage of the ceasefire prove pointless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

"If we must return to fighting we will do that in new, forceful ways," Netanyahu said in a video statement.

"President (Donald) Trump and President (Joe) Biden have given full backing to Israel's right to return to combat if Israel concludes that negotiations on Phase B are futile," he said.

The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will go into effect Sunday at 8:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT), mediator Qatar announced Saturday, as families of hostages held in Gaza braced for news of loved ones, Palestinians prepared to receive freed detainees and humanitarian groups rushed to set up a surge of aid.
The prime minister had warned earlier that a ceasefire wouldn’t go forward unless Israel received the names of hostages to be released, as had been agreed.

The pause in 15 months of war is a step toward ending the deadliest, most destructive fighting ever between Israel and the Hamas militant group — and comes more than a year after the only other ceasefire achieved. The deal was achieved under joint pressure from Trump and the outgoing administration of President Biden ahead of Monday's inauguration.
The first phase of the ceasefire will last 42 days, and negotiations on the far more difficult second phase are meant to begin just over two weeks in. After those six weeks, Israel’s security Cabinet will decide how to proceed.
Israeli airstrikes continued Saturday, and Gaza's Health Ministry said 23 bodies had been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.