French Court Convicts Journalists for Attempting to Blackmail the King of Morocco

The Paris Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday to impose a suspended prison sentence and a financial fine on French journalists Catherine Gracié and Eric Laurent, after convicting them of attempting to blackmail Moroccan King Mohammed VI in 2015.

The court sentenced Gracié to ten months in prison with a suspended sentence, while Laurent received a twelve-month suspended sentence, in addition to a fine of five thousand euros (5400 dollars) each. The lower court had previously convicted them to a year in prison with a suspended sentence and a fine of ten thousand euros.

The case dates back to the summer of 2015 when journalist Eric Laurent contacted the king's private secretary, before meeting with lawyer Hicham Naciri, sent from Rabat, at a hotel in Paris. This was followed by other meetings held under the surveillance of the French police, which ended with a financial offer of two million euros in exchange for abandoning the publication of a new book about the king, following a book the journalists had previously published in 2012 titled "The Predatory King".

During the third meeting on August 27, 2015, the journalists received envelopes containing 40 thousand euros each, leading to their immediate arrest and the opening of a judicial investigation on charges of blackmail.

Despite denying during the trial that they had threatened the king or engaged in direct blackmail, the journalists admitted to committing a "moral error" by accepting a financial offer from Moroccan authorities.

This ruling closes one of the most prominent cases that occupied public opinion in France and Morocco in recent years, which combined journalism, judicial investigations, and diplomacy.