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Rabat – The murder of a young man in his 20s in Tangier has rattled nerves in Morocco, prompting concerns and calls to give the perpetrators the severest punishment provided for in the Moroccan penal code.
The murder took place on Saturday, November 5, when security services found Anouar Othmani slaughtered in his own apartment in the Mesasna neighborhood in Tangier, northern Morocco.
Anouar, who was popular on the video-sharing platform TikTok, was originally from the city of Larach. The 20-year-old victim was studying in the Science Faculty in Tangier.
Photos online showed the victim’s mother broken and devastated following the news. Little information about the killing has been posted online at the time of writing.
Some internet users said it was the mother who first saw Anouar’s body in his apartment when she came to visit him.
Converging reports said that investigations are underway to determine the circumstances of the case and identify suspects involved in the killing.
Moroccan citizens took to social platforms to express sympathy and solidarity with the victim’s family.
Internet users have been using different hashtags, including #JusticeforAnouar and #WeAreAllAnouar to condemn the heinous murder and call for justice for the family of the victim.
“We are done. Until when are we going to be hearing similar cases?” an internet user said, condemning alleged short prison sentences handed to perpetrators.
Under Morocco’s penal code, anyone involved in murder shall be punished by life imprisonment.
Morocco’s penal code also includes the death penalty, which human rights activists have been seeking to abolish. Morocco has not carried out the death penalty since 1993.
In 2021, the annual report from Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) indicated a drop in violent crime in the North African country over the past six years.
The report said that violent crimes did not exceed 4% of the general appearance of crime. The 2021 report cited 45,829 cases of the category recorded across the country.
