Minister of Justice, Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi, has stated that death penalty is still a big topic for discussion in the society, and is considered as among the most important big projects I am focusing on to carry out the reform of the penal justice; and that Moroccan penal policy reflects the Kingdom’s positive interaction with the UN resolution number 77/2002, which was endorsed by the “Human Rights Commission” in April 2002 and concerned death penalty.
Minister Ouahbi made clear in his statement in front of the general assembly of the Moroccan coalition for the abolition of death penalty last Friday, March 18, 2022, that the Moroccan Kingdom is witnessing an important legislation major project aimed at reforming penal justice in compliance with international conventions which Morocco has adopted and which the Moroccan constitution has vowed to commit to the principles and obligations of rights; in addition to the outcome of the deep and broad national dialogue about reforming the judiciary apparatus, and the recommendations issued by the Authority of Equity and Reconciliation and finally the results of practices and the need to keep abreast with up-to-date penal systems.
In this context, Minister Ouahbi said that “international debate and the practice of death penalty attract three orientations: There are countries which have endorsed entire abolition of death penalty, others have maintained death penalty with execution and other countries have maintained death penalty with suspension, such as the Moroccan Kingdom which continues to adhere to its commitment to actual suspension of the execution of death penalty since 1993, and keeps up with great interest national and international dynamism of the on-going deep debate about abolishing death penalty”.
Minister Ouahbi added that though Moroccan legislation is still classified among the legislations maintaining death penalty, texts which include death penalty in force today, comprise only 36 articles, explaining that Moroccan justice deals with death penalty with more hesitation and serenity, as the annual average of death penalty sentences is reduced to ten each years, all were issued for very dangerous crimes with premeditation and terrorism; the number of persons sentenced to death penalty has reached until today 74 persons, 72 males and 2 females.
The Minister has stressed that royal amnesty plays an important role in bringing back balance to punishment policy and thus helps reduce the number of persons sentenced to death penalty, through transforming many cases of death penalty to life imprisonment or to a limited period as the number of above-mentioned cases has reached since 2000 until today 155 cases.