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Rabat – Moroccan police in the city of Casablanca arrested three suspects involved in the kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl.
Police arrested the suspects on May 8 in Hay Mohammadi in Casablanca for indecent assault and forcible confinement of the teenaged girl.
The minor’s mother alerted the police after her daughter disappeared from the family home located in a rural area near Sidi Bennour, said a statement from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN).
The mother said she received a phone call from one of the suspects who demanded a MAD 5,000 ($509) ransom in return for her daughter’s release.
Police investigation enabled authorities to identify the suspects, the DGSN said.
The suspects remain in police custody for further investigation to determine the circumstances of the case.
A similar case occurred in April 2019, when Moroccan police arrested four suspects for kidnapping a 22-year-old man and demanding a MAD 4,000 ($407) ransom.
Security services handled 639,116 criminal cases in 2019 and arrested 644,025 people, including 43,008 women and 23,746 minors, according to the 2019 annual DGSN report.
The DGSN report noted that violent crimes, such as serious robberies and sexual assaults, represent 8% of the general crime rate in Morocco.
Violent crimes saw a “significant” decrease of 8.6% compared to last year, the report said.
Additionally, crime in Morocco has significantly declined since the country entered lockdown on March 20. The DGSN announced on April 15 that the country’s crime rate fell by 20%, or roughly 10,867 fewer criminal cases, in March 2020 compared to March of the previous year.
