On 14 pages, non-including cover page, Casablanca-based Tel Quel magazine, conducted an exclusive interview with Minister of Justice and PAM leader, Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi, who unlike his colleagues at the executive, was outspoken, honest in responding to disturbing questions and has deeply expressed his own ideas by revealing his nostalgia for freedom of expression when he was in the opposition.
“I miss the opposition”, has sincerely responded to his interviewers. Furthermore, “the lawyer of the poor” has not used waffling discourse to affirm his positions on respect of individual freedoms, alternative sentences, the Rif unrest, corruption and abrogation of bills related to death penalty and respect of people’s private lives. “There is no room for interference in the private life of an individual in Morocco”, he has advocated.
“Accused, stand up, titles Tel Quel in addressing Minister of Justice
On a question about the controversial reform process of justice in the Kingdom, Mr. Ouahbi has revealed that civil code and penal code procedures are indeed in the hands of the government Secretary General. He has made clear that at Parliament, the people’s elected representatives “have adopted the bill of arbitration and conventional mediation. The bill on judiciary organization will go back to Parliament for a fourth reading while the other bill about unconstitutionality exception is currently at the House of Councilors”.
Minister Ouahbi added “in the meantime, we have presented a decree which was adopted later on by the government council, concerning diets for persons and children in custody, as well as meals service organization. We have also ended discussions regarding National Agency for managing and recovering confiscated properties. This is all to tell you that legislative procedure is in progress with a sustained rhythm. As for penal code, it requires a big debate”.
The Minister estimates that until next October, texts will be ready at that time, “the big debate on this bill will redefine penal policy in Morocco”.
There is no room for interference in an individual’s private life
When we ask him what you should defend precisely, Mr. Ouahbi reminds his long-standing position which has not changed at all: “there is no room for interference in an individual’s private life. Certain matters which we consider as crimes should not be qualified”. Of course, this concerns individual freedoms in the broader sense of the word.
When approaching death penalty which has known a moratorium since the execution of famous chief of police Tabit back in 1993, Mr. Ouahbi reminds “I am for the abolition of death penalty. Yet this concerns a state decision: There are some interactions between different sides which should lead to a result; there should be some developments in the future, we should not do things in rush. What I can tell you is that there’s currently a debate on this topic and we are going to see whether we could take some measures in this regard. More than that, Morocco would soon pronounce on the UN General Assembly resolutions aiming at a moratorium in the application of death penalty. It’s worth noting that Morocco has always abstained.
Facing the overcrowding of prisons and negative influence of penitentiary milieu on young delinquents, a debate is in progress on “alternative sentences”, including the wearing of an electronic bracelet.
According Mr. Ouahbi: “Effectively, there is a bill about alternative penalties which we have prepared; and this will bring us further from preemptive detention, as it would give furthermore a second chance to young people who have committed mistakes, but who are not criminals by nature”.
When I affirm something I don’t step back
While addressing the controversy of the Justice Ministry approach to prevent associations to defend public funds and file lawsuits against the elected, Mr. Ouahbi went back to charges saying: “When I affirm something, I don’t step back. To answer your question, how does it make sense that the state with all its institutions could close its eyes on corruption, if there’s one? When I have tackled the subject I’ve said that the state should react to fight corruption. Concerning those associations which pretend to defend public funds, I know pertinently the nature of relationship that they have with Presidents of communes, when we submit too many claims. At the legislative level, I am responsible as Minister of Justice for the protection of innocent persons”.
When Tel Quel magazine wondered whether protection of innocents should go through “the ban of filing lawsuit” against the elected, Minister of Justice has reiterated to whom who wants to listen: “If we let people filing lawsuits against those elected and offend them, this means simply that there are thieves everywhere and there are not innocents people at all under the sky. Thieves will be arrested one day or another whether through a claim submitted by an association for the protection of public properties or through state apparatus, what is important for me is innocent people. When his case is being reported in the press, on Facebook and that his reputation is flouted, how he could make people change their look on him after acquittal? It is inadmissible that some people react to harm innocents”.