A new complaint has been filed against the former French boss Jacques Bouthier and his collaborators in Morocco, for “sexual harassment”, and a seventh suspect, of French nationality, placed in police custody.
The Jacques Bouthier case, a former French boss accused with several of his collaborators of sexual harassment by young employees in Tangier, continues to grow in Morocco, with a new complaint, police custody and incriminating testimonies . “In total, seven complaints have been filed against (Jacques) Bouthier and his accomplices. The victims have decided to break the law of silence and others will also follow,” Me Abdelfattah Zahrach, a lawyer for the complainants, told AFP. during a press conference in Tangier. Until today, six Moroccans had filed a complaint.
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In addition, “a seventh suspect of French nationality has been placed in police custody. He will be presented during the day (Saturday) before the king’s attorney general”, said lawyer Aïcha El Guella, the president of the Moroccan Association for Victims’ Rights (AMDV), which organized the press conference.
On July 6, five Jacques Bouthier employees were brought before an investigating judge and remanded in custody following complaints from former employees of branches of the Assu 2000 group (renamed Vilavi in January) in the northern port city. from Morocco. A sixth defendant was released.
Employees would have “recruited and psychologically prepared the girls for the arrival of the boss”
They are accused of “trafficking in human beings”, “sexual harassment”, “indecent assault” and “verbal and moral violence”.
These six employees of the group – five Moroccans, including two women, and a Frenchman – would have “recruited and psychologically prepared the girls for the arrival of the boss” and “justified the inappropriate actions (of Mr. Bouthier)”, according to another member lawyer. from the AMDV, Karima Salama. The alleged facts occurred between 2018 and April 2022 in the Moroccan subsidiary of the French brokerage giant.
“Jacques Bouthier and his collaborators are in fact an organized criminal gang”, accused the president of the AMDV on Saturday before adding: “He believed that he could sexually exploit young women with complete impunity”. The ongoing investigation “will reveal other victims and other accomplices”, she assured.
Several complainants have already reported systematic sexual harassment, threats and intimidation within Assu 2000 in Tangier, in a climate of social insecurity. They said they were fired after refusing to “yield to harassment and blackmail” by Mr. Bouthier “and his accomplices” among the French and Moroccan executives of the insurance company based in Tangier.
Rare confessions in Morocco where victims of sexual abuse often remain stigmatized by society.
“I saw that they are capable of anything”
On Saturday, during the press conference, the young women – testifying on condition of anonymity, their identity protected by dark glasses and the sanitary mask – denounced a “campaign of intimidation in the media and on social networks” led by “the Bouthier clan”. “The nightmare continues, they (note: company officials) threatened us, insulted us and even tried to bribe us but without success!” Said one of them.
While another added: “I was really afraid of reprisals. I saw that they are capable of anything”. “Despite the difficulties, we are not going to back down. We will only stop once the ‘Bouthier mafia’ is behind bars,” she swore.
In France, justice indicted at the end of June two men, including a policeman, in the investigation for trafficking in human beings and rape of a minor in which Jacques Bouthier is imprisoned.
This powerful 75-year-old businessman was indicted in May in Paris following a preliminary investigation opened in mid-March, with five other people, in particular for human trafficking and rape of a minor. The former business manager is also being prosecuted for criminal conspiracy to commit the crime of kidnapping and kidnapping in an organized gang and possession of child pornography images.
In 2020, the magazine Challenges ranked Jacques Bouthier 487th in its ranking of the main fortunes of France, with a heritage estimated at 160 million euros. It dropped out of the rankings in 2021.