The Moroccan judiciary increased the sentence for the rapists of the girl from 2 to 10 and 20 years

The Court of Appeal in Rabat increased the sentences from 2 years to between 10 and 20 years in prison against three men who repeatedly raped an 11-year-old girl in a village in Morocco, who got pregnant and gave birth a year ago.

In this second and last hearing, which lasted eleven hours until 1:30 in the morning, the judge increased the sentence of Karim A. (36 years old) and Yusef Z. (22 years old and Karim’s nephew) from 18 months to ten. years of rigorous imprisonment and each of them to pay a fine of 40,000 dirhams (3,500 euros).

As for the third convict Abdeluahed B. (29 years old and who according to the DNA test the father of the baby the victim gave birth a year ago) was sentenced to 20 years in prison instead of two years in the first instance, and he was sentenced to pay a fine of 60,000 dirhams (5,300 euros).

They were convicted of “abduction of a minor” and “indecent assault with violence”, a crime characterized by sexual assault and for which the minor victim is sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison.

During this hearing this Friday, the prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence against the three men, which under the Moroccan penal code in this case would be 20 years in prison.

“I am asking for the maximum sentence and, if the death penalty existed in the law for these cases, I would have asked for it,” he said during a speech in which he pointed out that the girl, who is now 13 years old, “was robbed of her childhood” and “more cannot play like other children”.

The prosecutor stated that he does not agree with the reductions that the first-instance judge applied to the three convicts – considering that the sentence was too severe considering the facts, lack of conviction and their social condition – because “they should not be applied in these outrageous cases that have consequences for the whole society.”

This case caused great social anger in Morocco for mild prison sentences of 18 months to two years. The same justice minister, Abdelatif Uahbi, said he was “surprised” by the decision.

The girl, who is now 13 years old, lives in a rural village near the town of Tiflet, which is located east of Rabat. Two of the convicted are his distant family neighbors, and the third is also a neighbor. According to the police statement of the minor, they raped her several times, and sometimes in a group.

The hearing marked the testimony of the minor before the court behind closed doors, which, according to her lawyers, confirmed her previous statements in which she referred the convicted to her rapists.

A minor witness to the event, a member of Yusefa Z.’s family and a neighbor of the victim, also appeared, who retracted her previous statements before the court in which she admitted that she had witnessed the sexual abuse of the girl.

According to the prosecutor, the minor witness said that one day she followed Yusef Z. to the victim’s house and witnessed a sexual act, which she later described to judicial officers.

This Friday, the prosecutor decided to open an investigation against this minor for “complicity” in the crimes for which the three were convicted.

For their part, the condemned resolutely rejected the accusations, and one of them, Abdeluahed B., said that he is not the father of the child the girl gave birth to, although a DNA test confirms that he is 99 percent.99%.

The hearing was attended by several non-governmental organizations that defend women’s rights and a large number of domestic and international journalists who follow this case, who pointed out the mild punishments applied to rapists in Morocco.