Marrakech - The Moroccan royal cabinet has sent to the French magazine Le Point an article as a right of reply on behalf of King Mohammed VI in response to an article published in the magazine on July 24, 2014 which Morocco considered as undermining “the sovereign’s honor and reputation.”
The article published by Le Point concerned the wealth and private business transactions conducted on the King’s behalf.
The right-to-reply article, which was published on August 14, went unnoticed until a snapshot of it was posted on Facebook on Tuesday. It denied that Hassan Benhemou was the treasurer of the King, but only the managing director of the holding company SNI, whose capital is partially owned by the royal family alongside other shareholders.
The right of reply also denied that King Mohammed VI has any investment in phosphates in Morocco, indicating that this is a national asset operated by OCP, a public industrial group which belongs exclusively to the State.
Finally, the article aimed to dispel allegations in the Le Point article concerning public tenders. Those allegations described that alleged measures were tailored to benefit companies of the sovereign, including Nareva Energy Group, a subsidiary of the SNI.
The right of reply stated that this “was completely untrue” and the investment matters passed through a number of public ethics committees, adding that tenders are organized “in total transparency.”
There have been allegations that the sovereign “controls key business components of the economy” which were originally controlled by Siger, the royal holding company managed by the King’s secretary, Mounir al Majidi. But, these royal interests were divested from Siger and opened up by SNI to other investors after 2011.