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.
