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Rabat – A Moroccan appeals court sentenced on Wednesday a group of four men to four years in prison for the rape of a teenage girl in the southern city of Tata, sparking new frustration and outrage among Moroccan citizens and activists.
The sentence is increased from the initial sentence which had the four men looking at only a single year in prison. The appeals court gave the sentence for the crime of “violent indecent assault on a minor,” the victim’s lawyer Aicha Guellaa told AFP, adding that she is planning to pursue the case further in the Court of Cassation.
The crime took place in 2021, and led to the victim carrying a pregnancy, according to Guellaa.
Moroccans have expressed outrage at similarly lenient sentences in recent years for crimes involving rape and sexual assault of minors.
Last March, a Moroccan court sentenced three men to two years in prison for gang-raping and impregnating an 11 year-old girl victim. The sentence shocked the public and led to several high-profile protests and mobilization of public opinion.
Tens of thousands of Moroccans signed a petition condemning the sentence as a “despicable judgment.”
Eventually, the main accused received 20 years in prison while his two accomplices had their sentences increased to 10 years each on appeal.
The case also prompted many, including Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi, to challenge the apparent leniency of Moroccan courts in sentencing sexual abuse cases.
“The rape case of the child struck us all, and made us question, as a society, which measures should we reinforce and implement, on a legislative, intellectual, and educational level, to protect children from rape,” Ouahbi said back in April.
Presenting data on the alarming increase in cases of child sexual assault in Morocco in October, El Hassan Daki, the King’s Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, said that the Moroccan legislature has worked to improve the legal framework against child exploitation and abuse through harsher penalties.
