Three defendants accused of repeatedly raping an 11-year-old Moroccan girl have been sentenced to between 10 and 20 years behind bars on appeal, after lower sentences awarded in a lower court sparked outrage.
The appeals court in Rabat sentenced one man to 20 years in prison and the other two to 10, after a marathon session ending in the early hours of Friday.
The victim was only 11 when she was "repeatedly raped" and became pregnant, giving birth last year.
The legal team of the girl, who is now 12, had appealed after a lower court on 20 March sentenced one of her three alleged attackers to two years in prison, and the others to 18 months each.
The appeals court also ordered the three men, aged between 25 and 37, to pay damages totalling 140,000 dirhams (nearly €12,500) instead of the 50,000 dirhams ordered by the lower court.
"We are satisfied with the decision which delivered justice to the victim," lawyer Abdelfattah Zahrach said.
However, he questioned why two of the accused had received only 10 year sentences and said he was considering a further appeal to the Court of Cassation after consulting the child's family.
DNA evidence
The public gallery was packed for Thursday’s hearing.
The court heard testimonies from the victim – accompanied by her grandmother and father – and a witness, also a minor.
The latter was heard in private after the prosecution raised protection concerns.
The three men faced the same charges as in the original trial – “misappropriation of a minor” and “indecent assault on a minor with violence”.
A request to have "rape" added to the charges was rejected by the judge.
The three men denied the charges, but one of them was confronted with a DNA test proving that he is the father of the baby the girl had last year.
Asked how this happened, he repeatedly said, "I don't know".
Civil society pressure
The case has caused outrage in Morocco where tens of thousands of people signed a petition condemning the sentences issued by the lower court.
Fatima Zohra Chaoui, one of the girl’s lawyers, said the mobilisation of civil society and society at large had "helped to speed up the procedure" from the lower court judgment to the appeal.
“The media and social pressure has had an impact," she told RFI.
The girl, from a village near Rabat, was raped repeatedly over a period of months when she was just 11, the Jossour Forum of Moroccan Women said in a statement last month.
Amina Khalid, head of INSAF, a women's rights group that has followed the girl's case and helped her go to school for the first time, said she "is starting to smile a little but she is still in shock".
Ghizlane Mamouni, head of the Kif Mama Kif Baba association working for gender equality told RFI the verdict marked a big step forward.
"The message is that in Morocco you don’t rape little girls with impunity,” she said.
(with AFP)
