Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi made clear that “nobody has the right to present an amnesty request on behalf of any other person unless that person in question is himself interested in making that personal request”.
Minister Ouahbi was talking to National Radio program “Talking to the press” broadcast by SNRT last Wednesday, in which he stated that “When I presented a petition to His Majesty the King about an amnesty, I did it spontaneously and in its broad context, since the amnesty request is subject to certain procedures and measures… and when I made those statements, I made them while I was then in the opposition and I just expressed my opinion about the amnesty topic; the fact that has drawn a lot of criticism”.
Minister Ouabi added in clarifying that “No one has the right of presenting a request for an amnesty unless he has the qualification to do so. If I make an amnesty request for a person, well that person should have made the request himself first. As a Minister of Justice I receive requests for amnesty and so what I do is to transfer those requests to a judiciary commission of which I am no member and therefore I have no influence on it…as a conclusion, the topic is closed definitely for me and any Moroccan citizen can submit an amnesty request to His Majesty since the King has a special commission which deals with amnesty issues”.