Rabat, March 21 -- The criminal chamber at the Fez Court of Appeals has sentenced the president of Oujda municipality, Omar Hijra, and the president of the Oriental region, Abdenbi Bioui, to two years and one year in prison for corruption.

The criminal court found Hijra, a member of the Independence Party (PI), and Bioui, a member of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), guilty in 2017. The two had appealed their convictions.

Sentenced on Wednesday, Hijra will face two years in jail, and Bioui will serve one year on charges of fraud and embezzlement of public funds. The charges followed a report by the Court of Auditors showing several "suspicious" transactions made between 2006 and 2009 in the region of Oujda in northeast Morocco...