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Rabat – Following the capture of the suspect in the raping and killing of 11-year-old Adnane Bouchouf in Tangier, Moroccans launched a death penalty petition on Facebook. The petition, which aims to collect a million signatures, calls for the execution of the criminal.
The brutal murder of Adnane Boucouf has promted the question of whether death penalty should be applied again in Morocco’s judicial system.
Facebook users expressed their outrage at the odious crime, launching the petition that has so far collected more than 100,000 signatures.
According to Article 474 of Morocco’s penal code, the kidnapping of a minor is punished with a death penalty if the victim ends up dead.
Although death penalty remains a legal punishement in Morocco, the last execution took place in 1993. In practice, death row inmates only receive life imprisonment.
According to the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), Morocco sentenced at least 10 individuals in 2018, while more than 93 are still on death row.
Adnane Bouchouf was reported missing on September 7, after his parents sent him to purchase a medicine from a nearby pharmacy, but the boy never came back.
After arresting a 24-year old suspect in the case, the Tangier police found the boy’s body yesterday night, buried in a garden near his family’s house.
One day after the child disappeared, a street camera footage showed a young man talking to Adnane before walking away with him.
Security services only managed to identify the suspect appearing in the footage on Friday, after Adnane was already killed.
Tangier police arrested today three other individuals for not reporting the killing of Adnane Bouchouf. The suspects are the flatmates of the 24-year-old man who raped and killed the child.
According to Article 299 of Morocco’s penal code, the suspects can face between two months and four years in prison, as well as a fine ranging between MAD 400 ($44) and MAD 2,000 ($218).
