Morocco: Jail time for four men convicted of raping a teenage girl increased to four years

A Moroccan court on Thursday increased to four years' imprisonment the sentences of four men for the rape of a teenage girl in the south of the country, for which they had received one year's imprisonment in the first instance, according to the prosecution.

Fatima-Zahra, aged 15 at the time of the events, was raped by four men in a village near Tata (south-east of the country) in 2021, resulting in pregnancy, according to Aïcha Guellaa, one of her lawyers.

The Agadir Court of Appeal sentenced the four defendants to four years' imprisonment each for "indecent assault on a minor with violence", Guellaa told AFP, announcing that she would appeal to the Supreme Court.

In December 2021, they were each sentenced to one year's imprisonment at first instance. Sentences considered lax by human rights associations.

"As a women's rights activist, I don't think the verdict is satisfactory, but it's better than the sentences handed down at first instance", commented Aïcha Guellaa, President of the Moroccan Association for Victims' Rights (AMDV).

In the Moroccan media, this tragedy resounded like a "repeat" of another case in which three men accused of repeated rape of an 11-year-old girl were sentenced to two years' imprisonment in the first instance last March, sentences whose leniency had shocked public opinion.

After a strong mobilization of civil society, one of the accused was finally sentenced to three years in prison.

In Morocco, NGOs and the media frequently sound the alarm about cases of sexual violence against minors and call for tougher penalties.