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Moroccan entrepreneur in the Netherlands is suing the Moroccan government over the canceled opening of a cultural center in Amsterdam. Organizational consultant Khalid Boutachekourt claims he has not been paid for his services despite multiple attempts to recover the debt after he was hired by Morocco to plan a grand opening for the center in 2015.
The Moroccan government has long-held plans to establish a cultural center in Amsterdam, to be housed in a building it owns near the Artis Zoo. The center was officially outlined in a 2021 agreement as a hub for the Moroccan community in the Netherlands.
However, the project has been delayed. In 2015, Boutachekourt was approached by Morocco to organize a grand opening for the center, but the event was abruptly canceled.
«Our agency was asked to prepare a multi-day event with the opening on December 11 of that year. A theater company from Morocco would come over and tour the Netherlands for a few days, and there would be a ceremonial opening with dignitaries and administrators from home and abroad», he told Het Parool on August 1.
«Accommodation and transportation had to be arranged for the guests, there were culinary wishes, and there would be a big party with a line-up of artists. It had to be done with steam and boiling water, and our team pulled out all the stops for that», Boutachekourt alleged.
«I was left with all sorts of expenses. At the Moroccan embassy, they first said: wait for a new date, we will only receive money from Rabat after the opening. At first, the idea was that the opening would be postponed for a few weeks. Then it became a few months. Now, almost ten years later, it still hasn’t happened», he claimed.
Boutachekourt hopes to enforce payment through a lawsuit. On Tuesday, he and his company Publinc Academy will face the Kingdom of Morocco in the Amsterdam court.
In response to the Dutch newspaper, the Moroccan embassy in The Hague stated in an email that it «does not want to respond now that the case is before the court». Morocco's lawyer declined to comment, when contacted by the same source.
According to Kevin Stephan, Boutachekourt's lawyer, the original invoice was around 60,000 euros, and interest and legal costs have since added another 10,000 euros to that.
