Thami Bennani case: The most mysterious disappearance in Morocco resurfaces

The mysterious case of the disappearance of Thami Bennani, 17, resurfaces, 15 years later. The story had passed into the shadows but thanks to a Moroccan YouTuber, millions of Moroccans have been affected by this affair. Today Morocco as a whole is mobilizing on social networks to move the file and put names on the culprits.

His mother has been fighting for 15 years, against all odds, to find evidence and traces of the circumstances of the disappearance of her son in the city of Mohammedia.

On her own, she was able to reconstruct the facts, conducted the investigation, cross-checked the information, and transmitted everything to the police, in vain. Almost none of his efforts will have made it possible to confuse the accused, 5 friends of his son, from “rich and influential” families in their city, according to witnesses.

The file includes a lot of unknowns, contradictory testimonies from the defendants, witnesses changing their version in front of the police or the cameras, former friends, still traumatized today and under psychiatric treatment and refusing to speak, and the mother, maintains that influential people are behind this investigation, still at a standstill.

Having moved heaven and earth, for all these years, the grieving mother is still looking for answers on that night of March 14, 2007 when she saw her son leave in the car with his friends for the birthday of a classmate.

Today threatened, Hayat, the mother of Thami Bennani does not let go of the case, and simply seeks coherent answers, to know if her son is dead or alive, and that evidence be put forward. She denounces “negligence”, “attempts” to have the file closed without follow-up, “pressure” exerted so that the culprits are not accused and imprisoned.

This is a sordid and extremely serious case, since at best it is a case of the enforced disappearance of Thami Bennani and at worst a cold-blooded murder and concealment of evidence because , the body of the victim has not been found, with aggravating circumstances given that no one has broken the law of silence for 15 years.

Several versions of that night clash, in particular the one put forward initially by the defendants, according to which they would not have seen Thami that day, then the one in which they finally confess to having been with him but that “he would have taken drugs and would have died of an overdose”.

This would assume that no assistance to anyone in danger has been given, that no adult has been contacted, and the question of the body not found is raised. It would also mean that these people are responsible for at least two serious counts, namely unpremeditated murder and concealment of body.

Faced with this version, Thami’s classmates, former high school students who knew him as well as his best friend maintain for their part that he had never taken drugs or psychotropics.

In addition, the girl who organized his birthday, advanced two versions, one in front of the comrades in high school the day after the party, affirming that he had overdosed, and another, in front of the mother of the victim, affirming that it was his friends who “killed” him.

She also claimed that they would have “burned” him to conceal his identity and “thrown the body into the sea” to make it disappear forever. However, she never admitted this version to the police.

“I knew him from afar, he was a problem-free boy who seemed nice. After his disappearance, people actually shrank in on themselves and there were gray areas around his disappearance. All I’m sure of is that influential people have covered their tracks. At 17, you can’t make a body disappear without the help of adults,” said a witness who met Thami in high school.

In recent years, the judge in charge of the case has entrusted the file to the national judicial police brigade and progress has been made, but several expert reports requested by the victim’s family, in particular the tracing of calls from this day, have not yet had the green light from the courts.

#Justicepourthamibennani

This case, known nationally for years, had lost notoriety drowning in news and miscellaneous facts, but thanks to a video on Youtube of “Safaa”, a young Moroccan, passionate about stories of crimes and disappearances , the file of Thami Bennani has resurfaced and thousands of people who have not known about this case have been deeply touched by the touching story of this mother, now affectionately known as “tati” Hayat.

“I take you all for maternal love. You are the right hand by which I reach into the darkness and through divine power and you I will eventually unhook the luminous breaches,” the mother tweeted.

Thousands of Moroccans created the buzz on social networks on Sunday to reach as many public figures, influencers, actors, comedians, singers as possible. All the people likely to help and revive this case have been contacted privately, and their publications have been flooded with the hashtags #justicepourthamibennani.

Whether on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, or Twitter, in the space of a few hours, accounts dedicated to Thami Bennani, such as “Let’s find thami” created to help the victim’s family mobilized more than 24,000 followers, Safaa’s video garnered over 1.5 million views within 3 days, the hashtag #justicepourthamibennani trended on Twitter in the Morocco category, and celebrities started spreading the photos of the disappeared, messages and videos, associating with the pain and the pain of his family, and calling for justice to be done.

The photos and publications talking about Thami were also published on national “buzz” accounts with a large North African audience with an average of 1 million followers, and on North African pages such as “North african united” which brings together Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans…

Now a social media campaign to change his profile picture to that of Thami has been launched, and public opinion, angry and touched by the story of this young man who could have been their brother, is demanding answers. concrete.

“It’s so good to see that! One hand, one family! All together for justice,” tweeted a young girl, accompanying her tweet with a screenshot with Thami’s profile pictures on Instagram.

The story is gradually becoming a national cause, it is “not only Thami Bennani’s mother who wants to know the truth, not only his family who wants to know what happened to him. If he is alive that he appears, if he is dead, who are the murderers, under what circumstances did he die, and where is his corpse?… We all as public opinion want details, we demand answers,” journalist Imane Aghoutane said in a video.

“We won’t stop until we know what happened to Thami Bennani. We won’t stop until the whole world finds out about Thami Bennani. We won’t stop until justice is done, ”added a user on Twitter.

Singer Rajaa Belmir was one of the first personalities to speak on the subject, actors Anas El Baz and Omar Lotfi, journalists Samid Ghail and Ridouane Erramdani, singers Salma Rachid and Dounia Batma, rappers El Grande toto and Don Bigg , influencers Douja Belkhayat, and Asmaa Amrani, comedians Ezzoubir, Oussama Ramzi and Amine Radi, singers Latifa Raafat and Hayat Idrissi, all participated by reposting stories or creating publications to demand justice.

Faced with an outpouring of support and this case which is starting to make noise, Hayat Alami, the mother of Thami Bennani, has received death threats by telephone, she announced to her lawyers on Monday, two days before a hearing. before the court of Casablanca.