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TWO FRENCH JOURNALISTS went on trial today in France on charges of trying to blackmail the king of Morocco over allegedly demanding money to hush purportedly damaging revelations about him.
Eric Laurent, 75, and Catherine Graciet, 48, are accused of demanding €2 million in 2015 in exchange for halting the publication of a book about the Moroccan royal family.
Both writers, who face up to five years in jail and €75,000 in fines if found guilty, have denied any wrongdoing and say it was a lawyer representing the Moroccan royal family who first offered them the money.
Laurent in court today admitted to an “ethical error”, a “disaster” in having accepted to “let myself be caught up in this affair”, but denied having committed “any criminal offence”.
Co-author Graciet said that the Moroccan envoy “seduced me with his financial offer, I took the plunge and I regret it”.
The writers had already published a highly critical book on King Mohammed VI in 2012 titled “The Predator King”, which was banned in Morocco.
Ahead of the planned publication of a second volume, Laurent in August 2015 met a lawyer representing the monarchy at the bar of a Parisian hotel, and warned him it contained potentially embarrassing revelations for the monarchy.
Morocco accuses the journalist of offering to halt the book’s publication, originally due in early 2016, in exchange for €3 million. He allegedly later reduced that amount to €2 million following negotiations.
But Laurent says the lawyer representing Morocco was the one who suggested a financial deal to prevent the information from getting out.
“He’s the one who suggests it,” he said, recounting the scene in court.
After the first meeting, Morocco filed a complaint and an investigation was opened in Paris.
This time under police surveillance, the lawyer and Laurent then met again at the same hotel later that same month.
They met a third time in late August 2015 at another hotel, where they were joined by Graciet and both writers purportedly signed a deal to receive €2 million in exchange for not bringing out the book.
They were arrested afterwards in the possession of two envelopes each containing €40,000 in cash, which Morocco has claimed was the first instalment of the agreed larger sum.
During the investigation, both writers admitted to having agreed to a deal to halt the book’s publication over geopolitical concerns, but denied the charge of blackmail.
Laurent’s lawyer, Serge Portelli, has said both journalists fell into a “trap set up by the Moroccan services”.
Graciet’s lawyer, Eric Moutet, said she had “not taken part in any blackmail”, and considered herself to have been “the victim of a trap”.
After their arrest, it emerged that the Moroccan king’s representative had secretly made recordings of all meetings, and passed them on to investigators.
“This recording is a fake,” Laurent said today, when confronted with a transcript of certain passages in which he appears to actively suggest a sum of money.
An expert assessment previously found that the copies of the recordings handed over to investigators seemed to have undergone some kind of “post-treatment, impossible to define”.
But a court in 2017 rejected the defence’s argument that the tapes were inadmissible.
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€462 less 33% Dirt = €103 per year or €2 er week.
Seriously, how is anyone arguing that €2 per week on €10,000 put away for 3 years is actually a good deal when inflation will be over 2% for the same period.
I get that people dislike Irish banks but this isn’t the correct issue to be highlighting- it just perpetuates the appalling levels of financial illiteracy we have in this country.
Encouraging people to make a less %hitty decision is not good financial advice.
Deposit rates will never beat inflation over the longer term, the entire global financial system is set up to ensure this.
Why not educate people about the benefits of choosing a well diversified low cost investment and actually grow the value of their savings rather than fool them into thinking that 2.46% gross is a good deal.
It’s not – it’s lousy.
@Wombleman: We need to. Its the future of how we earn money when jobs are no longer necessary
@Wombleman: Well said. Not worth the bother moving it, or the ball ache of reporting DIRT….. that’s why deposits are in current not savings accounts
@RC247: that makes no financial sense when moving it actually saves your money eroding with inflation. Irish banks are scamming you & making money off you by doing so!
@Wombleman: The vast majority of people are never going invest in that way. Most don’t even move their money into an account with a higher interest rate. The banks are making money by sticking peoples money on deposit with the ECB and ripping the average saver off. It should not be allowed.
Just moved my BOI, PTSB and An Post savings to TFBank at 3.90% fixed for 1 year.
We desperately need a tax free savings & investments scheme just like the UK ISA system, the Canadian TFSA system or the (unfortunately named) US IRA savings vehicle. In the UK, residents can deposit up to £10,000/yr and earn interest free from tax.
@MTB Mayo: …sorry, it’s actually £20,000/yr now!
Why would anyone think that a bank will do anything other than take their money?
I dont understand why people are still using Irish banks. It is easy enough to open non-resident accounts in other European countries and avail of better customer service, better rates, and lower fees. Also part of the instant SEPA system unlike the Irish banks which are the only EU country yet to sign up to the protocol because the Irish banks deem it “too costly” to upgrade the technological infrastructure. I think the EU deadline was 2021, yet the Irish banks project it will be 2027 until they can partake in the system.
@Niall English: I thought Ireland was a full SEPA member… Do the Irish banks not ‘play the game’?
I didn’t encounter any problems moving my direct debits to a GB or LT Revolut account before it became IE, both with utilities and with credit card, loans, etc.
@Jerry LeFrog: they are a member of SEPA but they do not have capability of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Protocol e.g, instant transfer in 10 seconds. Irish bank transfers still take one working day. Its archaic stuff, technological infrastructure needs a serious upgrade and they complain they dont have the funding for this. Be nice to get into the 21st century banking. They were hoping this would be solved with that app they were going to launch together (BOI, AIB, and PTSB) but that got canned a few months ago.
https://www.raisin.ie/
Look at the rates with raisin.
F the Irish banking cartel!
To make money you need money. If you your family and mates can afford a min 100 euro each a month , you better of collectively putting into one investment pot where yous are all equal holders.
have your say