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Rabat – The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH-Marrakech) condemned the decision of a court in Marrakech to defer the trial of an alleged Kuwaiti pedophile until November 17.
The NGO said it was surprised to see the repeated postponement of the trial of the Kuwaiti man. The trial was scheduled to take place yesterday, September 29, and this is the ninth time the court has delayed proceedings.
AMDH was expecting judicial authorities to issue an extradition warrant to bring back the alleged Kuwaiti pedophile, suspected of raping a 14-year old girl in Marrakech.
The NGO recalled that the 24-year-old suspect received a provisional release at the end of January without having his passport confiscated.
“[He] managed to leave the national territory hours after his release.”
The NGO said the suspect admitted he raped the minor during the preliminary inquiry.
The case dates back to December 2019 when Moroccan police arrested the suspect.
The rape allegedly occurred in July 2019 when the victim disappeared for several days before returning to her home.
The child said that the man violently raped her in an apartment and paid her MAD 3,600 ($393).
She told her parents that the suspect hid her in the trunk of his car when entering the apartment building in Marrakech.
AMDH’s branch in Marrakech called on Moroccan authorities to submit a formal request to the Kuwaiti state to extradite the suspected pedophile and child rapist for an in-person trial.
“We renew our request for the judge to open the file through a comprehensive investigation,” they wrote, denouncing the decision of the girl’s parents to withdraw a lawsuit against the man.
The postponement of the trial comes in a tense context due to the recent increase of high profile pedophilia and child abuse cases in Morocco.
Last week, Moroccan authorities found the remains of a five-year-old girl in Zagora, southwestern Morocco.
On Spetember 11, security services arrested a 24-year-old man for kidnapping, raping, and murdering an 11-year-old boy in Tangier.
