Rabat – Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi discussed on Monday some details of the draft text for alternative sentences to imprisonment, during a session of the House of Representatives.
One mechanism that caught the public’s attention was establishing a convicted person’s ability to “buy back” their prison sentences, through fines paid to the state, if their sentence is shorter than two years.
“For adults, we proposed that if a crime is sentenced with less than two years, [the convict] can pay its price to the state instead of serving the sentence,” the minister said, specifying that the fine would range between MAD 100 and 2,000 per day.
The ministry is also proposing the use of monitoring ankle bracelets that would allow authorities to locate the defendant’s position, the minister added.
The rest of the alternative punishments concerned the sentencing of minors, with a particular focus on letting children under the age of 15 avoid prison, with community service being proposed instead, except in the case of “a serious offense.”
Community service will range between 40 and 600 hours at dedicated sites, with the conversion being two hours of community service for each day of the defendant’s sentence.
Judges will not be allowed to send minors under the age of 15 to prison unless in the case of a serious offense and with a justification of the decision, Ouahbi added on the floor of the House of Representatives.
