Two French investigative journalists have been charged in Paris with trying to blackmail the king of Morocco out of two million euros ($2.2 million) in hush money, legal sources said Saturday. Eric Laurent and Catherine Graciet were working on a book about King Mohammed VI, which was due for release early next year. But they were arrested in Paris on Thursday after a meeting with a Moroccan official at which they allegedly took 40,000 euros ($45,000) each as a down-payment, a source close to the French investigation told AFP.
The Moroccan government claims that was the first instalment out of a total of two million euros demanded by the authors in exchange for not publishing their book and its supposedly damaging revelations about the king. The French judicial source said the journalists were being investigated for attempted extortion and attempted blackmail.
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