Rabat – The General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) declared yesterday the arrest of 2,993 more individuals suspected of violating the state of emergency, including 1,697 who have been put in custody.
DGSN posted the statistics on Twitter, the last 24 hours’ arrests bringing the country’s total number of such arrests to 50,136 since the state of emergency began on March 20.
Casablanca still accounts for the majority of arrests (6,980), followed by Rabat (6,684), Kenira (5,324), Oujda (4,468), Marrakech (4,197), Agadir (3,622), and Sale (3,109).
Out of the 50,136 arrests, police brought 27,172 individuals before the public prosecutor’s offices, the DGSN said.
Charges mainly included crowding in public and inciting citizens to gather, and not carrying a legitimate exceptional movement permit.
In contrast to the rising number of the state of emergency arrests, DGSN recorded a 20% decline in the general crime rate between March 2019 and the same period in 2020, which translates to approximately 10,867 fewer criminal cases in the country.
Crimes related to theft under the threat of a weapon decreased by 52%, reported sexual assault and rape cases decreased by 41%, premeditated homicide cases went down 67%, and reported economic and financial crimes fell by 23%, in addition to decreases in other categories of crime.
Cases of assault and battery resulting in death and homicide attempts demonstrated an unprecedented decline, which could likely be explained by the decline in individuals’ movement during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Morocco criminalized violations of its state of emergency measures in Decree No. 2.20.292, passed on March 23.
Morocco’s Ministry of Health reported 140 new COVID-19 infections at 10 a.m. on April 21, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases to 3,186. Officials also reported nine more recovered patients, resulting in a total of 359 recoveries.
Since the confirmation of the country’s first COVID-19 case on March 2, Moroccan laboratories have conducted 14,018 tests that yielded negative results.
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