Rabat - Morocco’s Justice Minister, Mustapha Ramid, from the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, said on Wednesday in Rabat that the presence of an unmarried couple on the same bed is not considered a crime in the eyes of the Moroccan law.
Rabat – Morocco’s Justice Minister, Mustapha Ramid, from the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, said on Wednesday in Rabat that the presence of an unmarried couple on the same bed is not considered a crime in the eyes of the Moroccan law.
The Minister, who was speaking during a workshop organized by the Party of Authenticity and Modernity at the Parliament, said that many people fail to understand the revised penal code’s provisions regarding sexual relationships outside marriage, adding that the presence of a man and a woman in the same apartment is an ethical violation but not a crime.
The Minister added that law was is on the spirit of Islam which, in the case of adultery, requires four witnesses to testify that they have seen the offense, or else, a clear and confirmed confession by the perpetrators.
Under Article 490 of the Moroccan Penal Code, if neighbors file a lawsuit against unmarried couples, they will only be arrested if the perpetrators confessed or if they were caught in the act of having inetrcourse, Ramid explained.
Ramid went on to say that the police are not allowed to break into houses under any pretext whatsoever, adding that stalking people is not allowed in Islam.
This comes after a group of Moroccan activists called on the Ministry of Justice to repeal Article 490 of the Penal Code and to decriminalize premarital sexual relations between adults.
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