Morocco: 6 Men Jailed for Homosexuality

Taroudant- A Moroccan court convicted six Moroccan men for up to three years in prison for homosexuality on Monday, according to AFP.

Amid the growing debate on sexual freedoms in the kingdom and demands for abolishing Article 489 of the Moroccan penal code, the six men were convicted in the north-western city of Fkih Ben Saleh, 120 miles (200 kilometers) from Casablanca, after the father of one of the defendants accused five other “of coercing his son to engage in “deviant” acts,” according to AFP.

The six defendants were condemned for up to three years in prison for accusations ranging from “homosexuality, inciting prostitution, mediating in prostitution and being drunk in public,” said Ahmed Amin Chaabi, from the Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights, according to the same source.

Rachid Berrada, a Casablanca-based businessmen, called for a change of Moroccan law regarding homosexuality.

“I think we have to change our mind and our laws about many things such as homosexuality, heritage, and other social issues,” Berrada told MWN.

But this opinion is not shared by Redouane Tahri, a teacher of philosophy and a researcher in Psychological stress and sexual life, who points out that Morocco is a Muslim country where homosexuality or any other forms of sexual intercourse out of marriage should be forbidden.

“Homosexuality or any sexual intercourse out of wedlock are forbidden for many reasons, especially since Morocco is a Muslim country and Islam forbids such acts,” Tahri told MWN.

Less than two weeks before the International Day against Homophobia, held on May 17 every year, a group of people called “ASWAT” Group for sexual minorities launched a campaign for the defense of gays and lesbians in Morocco.

The group whose motto is “Love is not a crime” calls for the protection of the rights of same-sex minorities in the kingdom, and launched a petition entitled “Say No to homophobia in Morocco” to demand the abolition of Article 489 of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes “licentious acts against nature with an individual of the same sex.”

Under Article 489 of the Moroccan penal code, sexual acts between people of the same gender are punishable by between six months and three years in prison.