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Rabat – Elements of the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie in the rural town Tassoultante, in the Marrakech prefecture, recently arrested a married man and several married women for adultery and prostitution.
The wife of the male suspect discovered “compromising” videos on her husband’s phone of him engaged in illicit acts with other married women aged between 30 and 40. She then alerted local police, Moroccan newspaper Assabah reported on Tuesday.
Elements of the brigade of the royal gendarmerie of Tassoultante in Marrakech arrested the man and all the women in the videos.
The 50-year-old male suspect did not deny his adultery before investigators and admitted to paying the women in the videos.
Morocco’s penal code criminalizes adultery and extramarital relations.
Article 490 of the penal code stipulates that men and women who are not married and have sexual relations with each other face imprisonment of one month up to one year.
Married individuals who are convicted of adultery face imprisonment of one to two years under Article 491 of the penal code if their spouse files a complaint. Should the spouse withdraw the complaint, the offender will not face prosecution. The spouse’s withdrawal of the complaint does not automatically apply to the individual(s) with whom the offender engaged in adultery.
Convictions for adultery require eyewitness accounts or confessions from the accused.
The Tassoultante man, who has children with his wife, confessed to filming his extramarital relations and paying the women who appear in the videos. The women in question, who Assabah describes as “victims,” corroborated his story.
All individuals involved in the case are in police custody. They will appear before the competent general prosecutor’s office in Marrakech on charges of adultery, prostitution, and criminal gang organization.
Read also: Morocco to Investigate Adultery Video Attributed to Politician, Policewoman
Assabah reports that an investigation is underway to determine if the case is linked to other prostitution and human trafficking networks.
Morocco passed Law 27-14 on the fight against human trafficking at the end of 2016.
Between 2017 and 2019, Morocco registered 248 total cases of human trafficking and prosecuted 585 people for human trafficking crimes, including 144 women and 84 foreigners.
The country registered 719 victims of human trafficking between 2017 and 2019, including 283 victims of sexual exploitation.
