Recalling the priority given to the rationalization of pre-trial detention as a fundamental issue in the implementation of the national criminal policy, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary and the Presidency of the Public Prosecution issued a joint circular on creating mechanisms for local and regional coordination, similar to coordination based on the central level, to overcome the practical difficulties posed by the files of pre-trial detainees.
The circular directed to the first presidents of the courts of appeal and the public prosecutors at them, and the presidents of the courts of first instance and the attorneys at them urged the establishment of a local committee at the level of the circuit of each ordinary court of first instance, at the initiative of the president of the court and the attorney general, to hold its meetings periodically during the first week of every month.
This committee is entrusted with the task of studying the reasons for the failure of the detainees’ files, and endeavoring to prepare them and present them to the judiciary in the shortest possible time, and to prepare a report on its work, which includes statistical data on the files of remand detainees, arranged according to their seniority, the party presented to it and the difficulties that were monitored, in addition to the measures taken. which have been taken for good disposal; With the transfer of a copy of the report to the regional committee of the Court of Appeal within the week following its meeting.
In the same regard, the periodical stipulated the establishment of a regional committee at the level of each ordinary court of appeal, with the initiative and supervision of the first president of this court and its public prosecutor, to review the reports of the local committees and make observations and recommendations in their regard, in addition to preparing a synthetic report on the status of pre-trial detention in the department. Appeals, with its referral to the Central Coordination Committees of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Authority and the Presidency of the Public Prosecution before the end of each month.
The regional committee holds its meetings during the third week of each month after receiving the reports of the local committees, with an invitation to representatives of prison institutions located in the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to attend the work of these meetings.
Centrally, a Central Coordination Committee comprising representatives of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary and the Presidency of the Public Prosecution Office is established, and it holds its meetings in the last week of every January to study the reports of the regional committees referred to it, and to monitor the positives and negatives that impede the management of the files of remand detainees.
The Central Committee itself is also tasked with preparing a report on its work, with its transmission to the delegated president of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Authority and the attorney general of the King at the Court of Cassation, the head of the Public Prosecution Office.
It is noteworthy that the General Delegation for Prisons and Reintegration Administration had expected in its latest report that the number of remand detainees would increase by the year 2026 to reach more than 40,000, stating at the same time that this accounted for 41 percent of the total number of detainees in Morocco, whose number is more than 97. Thousands of people at the end of last year are in pre-trial detention.