After a complaint from his wife, a man convicted of adultery in Morocco could lose his French nationality

Son infidélité pourrait lui coûter la nationalité française qu'il a obtenue en mai 2021. ILLUSTRATION MAXPPP – Richard Villalon

Le parquet de Paris réclame qu’un Franco-Marocain soit privé de sa nationalité française en raison de sa condamnation pour adultère au Maroc.

A 49-year-old man born in Morocco and who became French by marriage in 2021 could soon lose French nationality due to… his infidelity.

Indeed, the nationality chamber of the Paris judicial court examined his case this Thursday, January 11 by decision of the Paris prosecutor's office and at the request of his wife, reports Le Parisian. 

"Presumption of fraud"

Married to a French woman since 2008, this native of Marrakech (Morocco) obtained French nationality in May 2021. He could have made the request in 2012, article 21-2 of the Civil Code establishing a four-year community life limit. But the prosecution considers that there is "a presumption of fraud".

His motivation ? A sentence of six months in prison for adultery pronounced in August 2021 by the court of first instance of Marrakech, just three months after obtaining his French nationality.  "The existence of an extramarital relationship is incompatible with the existence of a community of common life", according to the public prosecutor, cited by the daily.< /p>

An offense which no longer exists in France since 1975

For the defense lawyers, this sanction would be "unacceptable" because their client was convicted in a foreign country for a reason which is no longer punishable in France since 1975. According to them, he should therefore retain his nationality, which he had especially requested &quot ;to facilitate connections with your children.

For its part, the prosecution relies on the wife’s statements. This indicates in a letter from February 2022 that the couple had been sleeping apart for two years. She also revealed, during an interview with a consular agent, that the February 2021 community living certificate would never have been signed if she had been aware of the ;her husband's infidelity, which had probably lasted for 5 years when she learned of it in the summer of 2021.