MOROCCO has sentenced a man who kidnapped, raped and killed an 11-year-old boy in September 2020, to death.
The Court of Appeal in Tangiers has given the 24-year-old man a death penalty for killing Adnane Bouchouf and sentenced three of his flatmates to four months each in prison as well as fines.
Adnane disappeared on September 7, 2020, when his parents sent him to buy medicine from a nearby pharmacy, and was found dead on September 11 buried in a garden not far from where he lived. A street camera showed a young man talking to him before walking away with him.
His family had searched for him, distributing flyers and photos of the child which quickly spread across social media. Once the kidnapper knew people were looking for the child, he went to the barber to attempt to change his appearance. Despite this he was identified by the police, although it was too late for Adnane.
While on trial, he claimed he did not rape the boy and was not planning to kill him, but had kidnapped him only for money.
The case caused outrage in Morocco where the death penalty was demanded for the perpetrator. A petition was launched on Facebook calling for his execution and users expressed their outrage at the heinous crime.
According to Article 474 of Morocco’s penal code, the kidnapping of a minor is punishable with the death penalty if the victim ends up dead.
Although death penalty remains a legal punishment in Morocco, the last execution took place in 1993. In practice, death row inmates receive life imprisonment.
The Moroccan Coalition Against the Death Penalty continues to call for the government to remove the punishment from the country’s Penal Code.
