Morocco: Three men sentenced to two years in prison for raping 11-year-old girl

Minors are the first victims of sexual assault in the Kingdom of Morocco. Getty Images/500px Plus - David Izquierdo / 500px

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2 min

The Minister of Justice reacted on Saturday, April 1 at a press conference.

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With our correspondent in Rabat, Nadia Ben Mahfoudh

Three men were sentenced to two years in prison and fined less than 3000,11 euros for repeatedly gang-raping and impregnating an <>-year-old child. Many voices from Moroccan civil society reacted to this verdict, including Soumaya Naamane Guessous. The sociologist and university professor sent an open letter to Abdellatif Ouahbi, the Moroccan Minister of Justice in which she denounced "an inadmissible injustice".

Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi said he was "shocked" by the verdict but he also wanted to be reassuring by recalling that the case was still ongoing since the public prosecutor appealed the judgment in order to protect the rights of the victim and ensure the proper application of the law. He also recalled that he wants "to intensify the penalties provided for child molesters in the new draft Penal Code".

If Soumaya Naamane Guessous says she is satisfied with the minister's reaction, she insists on the importance of integrating the notion of pedophilia into Moroccan law: "To better protect our children, there should really be a children's code and it should be respected. A child who has been raped, several times, by three adults, at the age of 11 and who has a child at 12, [this] should be judged within the specific framework of a children's code and not according to the fact that he is a minor.

Laila Slassi, lawyer and co-founder of the Masaktach Movement, which launched an investigation into the judicial treatment of sexual offences in Morocco, recalls that minors are the first victims of sexual assault in the kingdom: "The cases of sexual violence that are brought in the 21 jurisdictions of the kingdom, for two thirds of them, they concern minors. This is a figure that should challenge us. »

A demonstration is planned next Wednesday in front of the Rabat Court of Appeal to denounce the overly light judgments rendered in cases of sexual assault on women and minors.

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Read on on the same topics:

• Morocco
• Rights of the child
• Criminality
• Justice