A Moroccan court has increased the jail sentences slammed on three men convicted of “indecent assault” for the persistent rape of an 11-year-old girl in a case that triggered public outrage.
An appeal court in Rabat has sentenced one man to 20 years in prison recently and the other two to 10.
The 12-year-old girl’s lawyers had appealed after a lower court sentenced one of her alleged attackers to two years in prison and sentenced others to 18 months each in a situation where all three offenders could have faced up to 30 years behind bars.
The three men were ordered by the appeal court to pay damages totalling 140,000 dirhams (nearly $14,000) instead of the 50,000 Dirhams that the lower court ordered.
While talking to AFP after the marathon hearing, lawyer Adbelfattah Zahrach said: “We are satisfied with the decision which delivered justice to the victim.
“That said, we do not understand why two of the accused have been only sentenced to 10 years.”
He added that he was considering a further appeal to the Court of Cassation “after consulting the child’s family”.
The court had heard private testimonies from the victim and a witness, also a minor, after the prosecution requested it, citing child protection concerns.
The victim, who looked frail and silent, was accompanied to the trial by her grandmother and father.
The defendants faced the same charges as in the original trial — “misappropriation of a minor” and “indecent assault on a minor with violence”.
The prosecutor’s request that “rape” be added to the charges was rejected by the judge. As the evidence was presented, the accused hung their heads in the dock.
One of the accused was shown a DNA test proving that he is the father of a now 13-month-old child that the girl gave birth to.
When asked how this happened, he repeatedly said, “I don’t know.”
The case has triggered an uproar in Morocco as a petition condemning the March 20 sentences has garnered thousands of signatures.
In a recent statement, the Jossour Forum of Moroccan Women said the victim, from a village near Rabat, was raped many times over several months.
Amina Khalid, Head of INSAF, a women’s rights group that has followed the girl’s case, said she “is starting to smile a little but she is still in shock”.
Also, INSAF has helped the girl go to school for the first time.
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