March 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A court in Paris has sentenced two French journalists to one year in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros on Tuesday for trying to blackmail the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, in exchange for not publishing a book with allegedly controversial information about his family.
The two defendants, Catherine Graciet and Eric Laurent, contacted the Moroccan Royal House in 2015 to pressure them in exchange for not publishing the book in question, something that the Paris correctional court now considers accredited but that journalists have always denied.
Graciet and Laurent, who will appeal the sentence on Tuesday, have only admitted an irregularity of an ethical nature, by being open to receiving up to 2 million euros from the Moroccan authorities in exchange for the silence that they supposedly promised, reports RFI radio.
The court has also accepted a civil lawsuit promoted by Morocco and which will mean that the two defendants pay compensation of 5,000 compensation to the Alaouite monarch. Mohamed VI’s lawyers have been satisfied with the ruling.
