Tunisian Police Arrest, Expel Prince Moulay Hicham to Paris

Tunisian authorities arrested and deported on Friday Prince Moulay Hicham at the Movenpick hotel Tunis. The first cousin of King Mohammed VI, was in the Tunisian capital to attend a conference on governance and security in Morocco, Egypt, and Yemen, scheduled to take place on Sunday.

According to media reports, the prince was deported to Paris at the end of the day through an Air France flight. Moulay Hicham landed in Tunis on Friday morning and went through customs procedures without problems.

Tunisia expels manu militari Prince Moulay Hicham, cousin of King Mohammed VI & dissident of #Morocco's monarch…

La Tunisie expulse manu militari le prince Moulay Hicham - Le DeskCinq policiers en costume cravate ont fait irruption ce midi à la piscine de l’hôtel Movenpick, à Tunis, pour embarquer le prince Moulay Hicham. Le cousin germain du roi du Maroc était dans la...

Ignacio Cembrero, former El Pais correspondent posted on his official Twitter account that “the men who came to arrest Moulay Hicham at the pool took him to his room in order to change, and to pack luggage, before taking him to a police station, where a verbal order of deportation was presented to him.”

The prince was transported to the airport by a police car. According to the same source, the Prince was informed by the head of Air France office in Tunis International airport that the “decision was political.”

In a statement to Maghreb Voices, Moulay Hicham confirmed the news, but declined to elaborate on the details surrounding his arrest and deportation.

It is not clear why the Prince has been declared persona non grata in Tunis. At the time of writing neither Moroccan nor Tunisian authorities have commented on the deportation of the Moroccan Prince.

Well informed sources told Morocco World News that “the decision to deport Prince Moulay Hisham, the cousin of King Mohamed VI of Tunisia, has nothing to do with the Moroccan authorities but is linked to the pressure exerted by the Saudi and Emirati diplomacy on the Tunisian authorities because of his participation in a seminar on “Security Challenges in Tunisia and Yemen Morocco, “organized by Stanford University, a symposium that apparently angered Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

source:moroccoworldnews