Alleged Victim of Taoufik Bouachrine: “He Tried to Rape Me”

Rabat – As the case of Akhbar Alyoum president Taoufik Bouachrine progresses, former journalist Kholoud Al-Jabri, one of alleged the victims of his alleged sexual misconduct, made a video appearance and said that Bouachrine “did not rape me, but attempted to.”

“I am ready to go with anyone who suspects that I have been raped to any doctor of their choice to prove that I am still a virgin,” said Al Jabri on Monday to Alyaoum24, which is affiliated with Akhbar Alyoum.

She explained in a video interview, conducted by Chouf TV, that Bouachrine would make her stay alone with him at the office. “We would finish work at 5 pm. But he would ask me to stay until 6 under the pretext that I still have more work to do.”

Once in his office, Bouachrine would allegedly try to kiss and grab her. “But I always reject,” she indicates during the video interview, adding that sometimes “he would use violence and force against me.”

“He knew that I desperately needed the job to support my family and used that against me as a ‘smart tactic’,” the former journalist said.

After informing her parents of the circumstances of Bouachrine’s conduct, they encouraged her to file a complaint, she said in the video.

Several women in Bouachrine’s circle of friends and colleagues were summoned by the Public Prosecutor as part of the ongoing investigation over charges that have been filed against him. His lawyer, Mohammed Ziane, said that the number of women contacted so far is about 30.

According to a communiqué published Monday by the Prosecutor General Office, Bouachrine appears in 50 different videos, showing him with female victims of his sexual misconduct.

The same communiqué indicated that “Bouachrine is being prosecuted for human trafficking, rape and sexual assault.”