Rabat – Moroccans make up 0.05 percent of the Italian prison population, numbering to nearly 3,000 detainees in prisons across the country, Italian judicial sources have announced.
Out of 520,000 individuals constituting the Moroccan community in Italy, nearly 3,000 Moroccans and holders of Moroccan and Italian citizenships are currently locked up in Italy prisons. These prisoners are serving sentences related to various crimes such as theft, rape, sexual harassment, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, assaults and terrorism.
As of March 2017, the total Italian prison population was 56,289.
The latest Moroccan detainee in Italy was arrested in 2015 for an alleged theft operation that targeted a massive canvas of the Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino, from a church in the country.
Three of the detainee’s partners in crime were arrested in Casablanca and placed in pre-trial detention. The Criminal Chamber at the Court of Appeal has not yet set the date of their trial.
The Moroccan community in Italy amounts to 520,000 according to official statistics. The number of undocumented Moroccan immigrants in the country is not known.
