What will happen to Sébastien Raoult? The lawyer of this French student detained in Morocco and wanted by the US courts for cybercrime, said that he had seized the UN Committee against Torture on Wednesday, fearing his imminent extradition to the United States.
According to Me Philippe Ohayon, a prison guard notified and translated the extradition decree to Sébastien Raoult on Monday in his cell. The Moroccan, French and American authorities did not want to confirm this information.
The Moroccan Court of Cassation issued a “favorable opinion” in August on the extradition of Sébastien Raoult and the final decision on his transfer rests with the Moroccan prime minister.
many charges
The 21-year-old former computer science student was arrested on May 31 in Tangier (northern Morocco) based on a red alert issued by Interpol at the request of the US justice system, when he was preparing to take the plane back to France. .
He is accused by the US justice of conspiracy to commit fraud and electronic abuse, serious identity theft and of being a member of the “ShinyHunters”, a group of “cybercriminals” suspected by the Americans of being behind cyberattacks on companies, which he denies.
Me Ohayon seized the Committee against Torture to suspend this transfer, relying on “several extraditions granted in recent years by Morocco” and which were blocked by this UN body. “The Committee considers that Moroccan law does not allow sufficient control against the risk of inhuman and degrading treatment,” the lawyer told AFP.
Up to 116 years in prison
The lawyer asks the Committee “to have the same position as the European Court of Human Rights according to which there can be no extradition when the person incurs a real life sentence, that is, until death, without diplomatic guarantees of the possibility of adjusting the sentence” . “he added.
It stresses that “despite the 116 years in prison incurred (in the United States), the Moroccan authorities have neither requested nor obtained these guarantees.”
In his request consulted by AFP, Me Ohayon also asks Morocco to suspend the extradition of Sébastien Raoult until the Committee decides and releases him.
Contacted, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which did not confirm the existence of this extradition decree, assured that the Frenchman had received “five consular visits since his imprisonment that allowed us to know his conditions of detention, his state of health and respect”. for the rights of defense”.
Me Ohayon and Paul Raoult, the student’s father, multiplied the procedures with the French authorities for him to be extradited to France and tried there. No success so far.
Source: BFM TV
