Casablanca — Former MUR officials Fatima Nejjar and Omar Benhammad have been handed a two-month suspended prison sentence.
Though they were initially place in detention and later granted a temporary release, the Benslimane court gave the two a suspended prison sentence and fined 500 dirhams each as of Thursday, November 24.
With a suspended prison sentence, Nejjar and Benjammad will not see the inside of a jail cell, but they must not commit even the most minimal of infractions for fear of seeing actual prison time.
Quick reminder: Fatima Nejjar (62) and Omar Benhammed (63), the two former vice presidents of the Movement of Unity and Reform (MUR), the PJD’s religious wing, were caught committing adultery aboard a car parked on the beach in Mohammedia on the night of August 20.
Nejjar, a widow with six kids, and Benhammad, a married man and a father of seven, had reportedly been together, though they were not officially married. They had discussed the idea of marriage but had been met with opposition from other members of the PJD and their respective families.
Many close to the party had evoked the idea that Nejjar and Benhammad may have been the victims of a setup aimed at creating controversy before the October 7 legislative elections.
Since their temporary release, the two suspended MUR members have gotten married, though this didn’t dissuade the justice system from giving them a sentencing on Thursday.
Meanwhile, if the pair was indeed sought out as part of a set up, the PJD didn’t suffer much from it, winning the October elections by a landslide.
