The Minister of Justice reacted on Saturday April 1 during a press conference.
With our correspondent in Rabat, Nadia Ben Mahfoudh
Three men were sentenced to two years in prison and fined less than 3,000 euros for repeatedly gang-raping and impregnating an 11-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 unacceptable injustice “.
Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi said to himself ” shocked by this 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 to ensure the proper application of the law. He also recalled that he holds ” 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 was raped, several times, by three adults, at the age of 11 and who made a child at 12, [cela] should be judged within the specific framework of a children’s code and not on the basis of the fact that he is a minor. »
Laila Slassi, lawyer and co-founder of the Masaktach Movement, behind an investigation into the judicial treatment of sexual offenses in Morocco, recalls that minors are the first victims of sexual assault in the kingdom: “Cases of violence which are carried out 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 lenient judgments rendered in cases of sexual assault on women and minors.