Light prison sentence for six child rapists in Tata triggered outrage in Morocco

Five adult men were sentenced to 12 months in prison by Agadir’s Court of First Instance after repeatedly gang-raping and impregnating a 15-year-old girl in a town close to the southern city of Tata. This decision has outraged and shocked Moroccans.

In March 2022, the court handed out its decision and sentenced the rapists for “indecent assault on a minor.”

The victim’s family experienced further shock and frustration following the ruling, and human rights advocates accused the Moroccan legal system of being lenient against rapists.

The event occurred in 2021, when six males, including her local football team’s coach, sexually attacked the girl, Fatima Zahra.

“Investigations led to the identification of a main suspect, who is the girl’s coach in a local football team, as well as five other men who also raped her,” said Fatima Zahra’s uncle, who asked to remain anonymous, to AFP.

Five suspects had been detained by the authorities; four had completed one years’ worth of prison time at the Ait Melloul facility, and the fifth, a minor, had completed eight months’ worth of juvenile incarceration.

According to local accounts, the sixth suspect is still on the run.

Fatima Zahra’s family lamented the court’s lenient sentencing and called the decision “unjust and illogical.”

He continued by claiming that his niece, who is currently a mother to an eight-month-old child, was in a “unimaginable state” as a result of the traumatic event.

Wednesday will mark the beginning of the appeal trial against the five men at the Agadir Court of Appeal, with Fatima Zahra’s family urging “justice to be served.”

Not the first time

Fatima Zahra’s case comes weeks after a similar incident occurred in the city of Tiflet. It involved three men who had been found guilty of raping and impregnating 11-year-old girl Sanae, but received light sentences of only two years in prison.

The light sentences triggered nationwide condemnation and uproar, with associations, activists, and public figures calling for the reopening of the trial.

In addition, Morocco’s Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi said he was “shocked” at the sentence.

“The rape case of the child struck us all, and it 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,” the minister was cited as saying in local media.

The three men’s sentences were increased by Rabat’s Court of Appeal to 20 years for one defendant and 10 years for the other two in response to significant criticism of the first sentencing.

The series of instances have spurred a discussion about the need for immediate changes to Morocco’s criminal justice system as well as the more general issue of safeguarding children from sexual assault.

Critics of the light sentences accused the country’s legal system of normalizing sexual abuse and rape culture.

Read Also: Rabat Court of Appeal condemns 11-year-old rapists to 10 to 20 years in prison

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