In light of his recent dismissal linked to circulating audio recordings, Ahmed Qadim, the Dean of the Arabic Language Faculty at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, has broken his silence through a statement posted on his personal social media account. In this statement, he provided his account of the situation, asserting that the released recordings have been taken out of context and expressing his willingness to undergo any investigation to clarify all aspects of the matter.
According to Qadim's statement, the origins of this issue date back to 2008 when he received a phone call from a woman who introduced herself as a student suffering from a psychological crisis due to her attachment to him, claiming she had left the university for this reason. He further elaborated that all of his responses, which were not included in the circulating recordings, were focused on persuading her to return to her studies, insisting on meeting her for this purpose; however, she rejected all of his attempts.
The dismissed academic administrator expressed that at that time, he believed the woman was mentally ill and attempted to help her return to the college by reciprocating her feelings, as he put it, indicating that this was done with his wife's knowledge, who answered the first call he received at their home. He noted that the woman blocked him in 2009, shortly after those recordings, only for him to learn in 2012, according to his account, from a student that the woman he had been communicating with was not a student but was instead being used by someone to blackmail him. He mentioned that the same student informed him she was from Youssoufia and had recorded calls with several professors using the same tactic.
Furthermore, he stated that the aforementioned student assisted him in 2012 in destroying the hard drive that contained those recordings, later informing him that another copy existed with one of his colleagues at the faculty. He met with this colleague, who reportedly admitted to having received those recordings but claimed they were lost after moving to another residence, promising to dispose of them.
Qadim considered the re-emergence of these recordings, eighteen years after their recording, to be within a misleading context, accusing a professor who had previously run against him for the position of dean of being behind this act, asserting that the objective was to gain the position through what he termed as malicious intent. He denied ever having met the woman in question, even once in his life, emphasizing that the motive behind the release of the recordings was an act of "revenge," due to his decision to halt a thesis discussion he claimed was linked to the aforementioned professor. He indicated that he has retained what he considers evidence that could be presented if any investigation is initiated into the matter.
Moreover, he attributed the reasons for what he described as a smear campaign to his opposition against activities of a civil association that he claimed sought to exploit the faculty and impose financial fees on students for publishing, reinforcing that he possesses documents and evidence regarding this issue and is prepared to present them to the competent authorities.
Qadim announced his full readiness for an investigation and to clarify all circumstances before the judiciary, directing a message to the Minister of Higher Education in which he called for "the law to prevail over emotions."
As reported by 24saa.com.
