Kuwaiti Tourist to Face Trial in Absentia for Alleged Rape of Minor in Morocco

New twist in the case of the 24-year-old Kuwaiti, accused of raping a minor, but who has not yet answered for his actions before the Moroccan justice system. The Criminal Chamber of Marrakech opened on November 15 a procedure of contumacy against Abderrahmane Mohamed Samran Al-Azmi, who had fled Morocco on January 28, 2022, after being provisionally released on bail of 30,000 DH. He will therefore be tried in absentia. The next trial hearing is scheduled for January 10, 2023. The Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) is now the sole civil party, the child’s mother having withdrawn her complaint. "We have not forgotten. We are still following the case and we are still a civil party," says Omar Arbib, of the AMDH (Marrakech branch), quoted by Médias24.

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The triggering of this procedure follows 21 hearings of the trial, during which the defendant never appeared, despite numerous summons and the guarantees deposited by the Kuwaiti embassy. Omar Arbib wonders how the defendant managed to leave the territory when he was the subject of a criminal prosecution. "The public prosecutor’s office could at least have issued an international arrest warrant, which was not done," he adds, recalling that the defendant "confessed the facts before the judicial police and the investigating judge".