The Court of Appeal of Rabat, Morocco, has increased the punishments of the three men who for months had abused an 11-year-old girl, who after the violence suffered had become pregnant and had given birth at the age of 12. In the first instance one of the three men was sentenced to two years in prison, the other two to eighteen months: the Court of Appeal has now brought the sentences to twenty years for one and ten years each for the other two.
The Moroccan penal code provides for much higher penalties for sexual offenses against minors, up to thirty years of age, but also leaves judges with full discretion in applying extenuating circumstances. The first-instance ruling had therefore caused widespread protests in the country. Many associations, movements, academics and intellectuals had mobilized to ask for the sentence on rapes to be reviewed and to denounce the fact that the “lightness” of sentences tends to characterize cases of sexual violence committed against women and minors.
– Read also: The sentence for the rape of an 11-year-old girl protested in Morocco
Upon leaving the court, Abdelfattah Zahrach, the girl’s lawyer identified only with the initial S., said he was satisfied with the verdict, but added that he did not understand why “two of the accused received only ten years each”. He is therefore evaluating the appeal to the Supreme Court. The defendants, aged 25, 32 and 37, were also sentenced to pay compensation equal to 140,000 dirhams (more than 12,500 euros) while in the first instance they were sentenced to pay 50,000 dirhams (4,500 euros). The verdict of the Court of Appeal came after a single hearing in which the prosecution had asked for the maximum sentence of thirty years for the three defendants.