Ra bat – A Moroccan court in Tangier sentenced this week a professor to one year in prison for his invovlement in the “sex for grades scandal,” a case linking professors to sexual harassement against students.
“We are not satisfied with the verdict, because we are talking about very serious facts that will forever stay with the victim,” lawyer Aicha Guella told AFP.
The lawyer emphasized that the professor’s victim will appeal the verdict against.
Moroccan police arrested the 46-year-old professor in January amid a nationwide campaign for the arrest of all professors invovled in blackmail and sexual harassemnt at higher instituions across Morocco.
The involvement of professors in sexual blackmail, a case that has been referred to as “sex for grades” by media, made international headlines recently.
The Tangier court’s verdict against the 46-year-old defendant, who was his victim’s Spanish language instructor at the Higher School of Translation in Tangier, is the second of its kind after Morocco’s Appeal Court in Settat, near Casablanca, sentenced a professor for his involvement in the “sex for grades” scandal.
The scandal made national and international headlines after students launched a campaign to end what they described as an epidemic of sexual harassement at Moroccan schools, including at Settat’s Hassan 1st University where the scandal first broke late last year.
The Hassan 1st University professor, who received two years in prison, appeared before the court after leaked conversations between him and a student victim went viral on social media.
The leaked conversations showed the professor demaning sexial favors from female students in exchange for “good grades.”
Four other professors are under legal proceedings in Settat, for their involvement in the sex for grades scandal..
With similar cases in Settat and in other Moroccan cities pending trials, police and courts received many complaints from students from several schools, including Morocco’s National School of Business and Management (ENCG) in Oujda.
According to Morocco’s penal code, sexual harassment is a crime punished by a prison sentence ranging from one to two years in prison.
