PARIS: Two French investigative journalists have been charged with trying to blackmail the king of Morocco out of $2.2 million in hush money, legal sources said on 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 $45,000 each as a down-payment, a source close to the investigation said.

The Moroccan government claims that it was the first instalment out of a total of $2.2m (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.

They are currently free on bail, but restricted from talking to each other or parties involved in the case.

Eric Dupond-Moretti, a lawyer for the Moroccan government, told France’s RTL radio that 68-year-old Laurent contacted the royal palace in July, saying he was writing a book about the monarch.

The journalist allegedly demanded three million euros initially, but reduced the figure after further negotiations.

However, by then the monarch had filed a case with Paris prosecutors and later meetings with the journalists were bugged.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play