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The Court of Appeal in Tangier, northern Morocco, has postponed for a second time the trial of the suspect who confessed to raping and murdering 11-year-old child Adnane Bouchouf.
The court postponed the trial from December 1 to December 15 at the request of the suspect’s lawyer.
The attorney requested a deferral of the hearing session until all four suspects in the case — the confessed murderer and his three roommates — can attend.
The court was unable to host all four suspects at the same time due to logistical challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the second time that the court has postponed the trial. The session was initially scheduled for November 17, but the main suspect’s lawyer requested more time to prepare his pleadings.
The bar association in Tangier appointed the lawyer only a few days prior to the first trial date because all lawyers initially refused to take on the confessed murderer’s defense.
Read also: Tangier Court Defers Trial of Adnane Bouchouf’s Rapist, Murderer
The case dates back to September 7, when the victim, Adnane Bouchouf, went missing after his parents sent him on an errand to a nearby pharmacy.
Four days after the child’s disappearance, security services in Tangier found his body buried in a garden near his family’s home.
Investigations revealed that the suspect, a 24-year-old man who works in the Tangier industrial zone, lured the child to his apartment, raped him, killed him, and buried him in the garden.
Police sources announced that the suspect confessed to his crimes. He admitted that he had committed them on the same day he lured the child.
Security services arrested the main suspect’s three flatmates in the following days for allegedly not reporting the crimes.
