Rabat – King Mohammed VI has granted an exceptional pardon to the prisoner Amer Gharzani, convicted in a terrorism case, because of his health state.
The pardon went into effect on Saturday, January 18, announced a press release from the Joint Commission for the Defense of Islamist Detainees.
Gharzani, who is from the region of Fez, was spending a five-year sentence in the prison of Ras El Ma I in Fez. The released prisoner suffers from anemia and has spent several weeks in a Fez hospital.
The commission, whose mission is to defend the rights of Islamist prisoners, expressed their thanks to the King for this humanitarian act. They also thanked the monarch for the release of eight other women convicted in terrorism cases on January 11.
On Morocco’s Independence Manifesto day, King Mohammed VI granted a royal pardon to 265 inmates, including eight former extremist women.
The women were part of an ISIS-linked terrorist cell made up of 10 women. The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) dismantled the terrorist cell in October 2016.
The women, who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, were looking for products used in the manufacture of explosive devices, with the aim of carrying out suicide attacks at sensitive sites across Morocco, announced BCIJ.
The King pardoned the women after they benefited from “Moussalaha,” a Moroccan government-sponsored “reconciliation” and de-radicalization program.
Morocco’s General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR) launched the program in 2017. The program aims to psychologically and intellectually rehabilitate prisoners with extremist ideologies in order for them to successfully reintegrate into society.
The Moroccan government has shown trust in the program. The Sovereign has previously offered his pardon to numerous defendants convicted of terror-related crimes who applied to join the program.
The program supervisors only approve of the convicts’ release after they make sure the defendants rejected extremism and terrorism and expressed their attachment to the values of the nation.
