The verdict in the case of an 11-year-old child repeatedly gang-raped by three men aged 25, 32 and 37 is moving Morocco. The court sentenced them to terms of up to two years in prison, a “lax” judgment according to many associations for the defense of women’s rights which raise the question of the integration of the concept of pedocrime in Moroccan law, while a reform of the Penal Code is being prepared.
From our correspondent in Rabbat,
It all starts with an open letter. In a long text addressed to the Minister of Justice, the sociologist and activist committed to the defense of the rights of women and minors, Soumaya Naaman Guessous, tells the story of S., 11 years old, from a small village near Tiflet, a town located between Rabat and Meknes.
For several months, S. is raped by three neighbors who take advantage of her parents’ absence to sexually assault her. Her ordeal only ends when one of the three men notices that she is pregnant. The rumor spreads in the village market and reaches the ears of the father, who takes him to see a doctor. S. is in fact already eight months pregnant and gives birth to a boy a few weeks later.
Following the complaint lodged by the family, S. confides in the gendarmerie and identifies the three men. The parent of the baby will be confused by the DNA analyzes, and the case entrusted to the court of Rabat. But while Moroccan law punishes with ten to twenty years in prison the rapes committed on a minor under 18 years, and imprisonment for up to 30 years if there is defloration (loss of virginity), the judges retain mitigating circumstances to the three men, in particular that “ the penalties incurred are too harsh in relation to the facts incriminated “.
“ It is not possible, we had confidence in the justice of our country “, protests Amina Khalid, secretary general of the National Institute of Solidarity with Women (Insaf). For Ghizlaine Mamouni, president of the Kif Mama Kif Baba association, which campaigns for gender equality, it is “ the power of appreciation left to the judge, in normal times useful to rule on particular cases, which has been used to send a message of total impunity to child rapists, pedophiles “.
“ The process is blocked »
Beyond the case itself, S.’s case raises many legal issues. “ This raises the question of abortion, which is still penalized in Morocco, or that of illegitimate filiation, which engages the sole responsibility of the mother vis-à-vis the child born out of wedlock, without involving that of the biological father. This is why we have been asking for a long time for the global overhaul of the Penal Code and the creation of a Children’s Code “, explains Ghizlaine Mamoouni, who is a lawyer.
For about ten years, with the establishment of a new Constitution in 2011, integrating the principle of equality between women and men, civil society has been calling for the reform of the Penal Code as well as that of the Moudawana, the Family Code. “ Successive governments announce that they want to respond to this demand, but the process is blocked “, regrets master Mohamed Oulkhouir, vice-president of Insaaf.
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“ Our law protects the social order »
EBetween 2016 and 2021, Parliament tried several times to agree on a text, but faced with disagreements, the project ended up being abandoned. Since then, a new reform project has been in the hands of the Minister of Justice. Abdellatif Ouahbi has also declared to the Moroccan media that the commission set up to draft this new penal code could complete its work “ en April 2023 “. But in the same statement, he adds that several members of the commission are at an impasse. “ Depending on the political orientation of each, whether conservative or reformer, it is difficult to find a consensus “explains the Keeper of the Seals.
For me Mohamed Oulkhouir, hiding behind this search for consensus promotes the status quo “. OIt is based, he says, on the argument that “ society is not ready, it is traditional and you should not offend anyone “. According to him, the current text is a legacy of the Napoleonic Code, introduced in Morocco by France at the time of colonization. “ It must be swept away to adopt a new one that is in line with today’s Morocco, he continues. We need to be able to protect our children. »
For Soumaya Naamane Guessous, it is all the more important that “ the concept of paedocriminality does not exist in the Moroccan penal framework », she explains. We are not talking about abused children, but about minors who are under 18 years. “ Thus, the fact of sexually abusing a child of 8 or 10 years old is not considered an aggravating factor. Only a clear framework, a specific Code for children, could provide them with adequate legal protection. Me Mohamed Oulkhouir agrees : “ Our law protects above all the social order and the family unit and not the child as an individual. », as required by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Morocco in 1993.
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