Rabat - Moroccan human rights organizations expressed disappointed at the ruling of the Court of Agadir, which sentenced a convicted pedophile to a mere one year in prison on Friday.
Rabat – Moroccan human rights organizations expressed disappointed at the ruling of the Court of Agadir, which sentenced a convicted pedophile to a mere one year in prison on Friday.
A teacher at the primary school of “Al Mamoun” in the region of Taroudant received a one-year prison sentence for the crimes of child abuse and sexual harassment.
Agadir’s Court of Appeal pronounced its judgment against the convicted sex offender after a trial in which the victims’ parents brought the case before the Court of First Instance in Taroudant last March.
The teacher reportedly had sexually harassed seven students, aged 8 to 10, on a regular basis, until they finally informed their parents who reported the crimes to authorities and put the offender behind bars.
The alleged abuser, the father of a child, continues to deny the charges despite his conviction. He claims that he is the victim of a set up plotted by “jealous women from his workplace.” He added that this intrigue was “made up by a group of women who could not swallow the fact that he had married one of his former students.”
But Moroccan human rights organizations slammed the ruling of the Court and described it as step backward in the fight against pedophilia and sex abuse in Morocco.
Najat Anouar, head of Ne Touche Pas Mes Enfants [Do Not Touch My Children], an organization that defends the rights of children in Morocco, said the ruling was shocking to her and to the families of the victims of pedophilia.
In a communique released on Saturday, she called for a review of the judgment as soon as possible and for the Court to apply the appropriate sentence against the sex offender so that justice is served for the benefit of seven girls who were the victims of the sexual abuse.
She went on to add that she “plans to conduct an extensive campaign to challenge all court rulings that don’t deter perpetrators of sexual abuse against minors in Morocco.”
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