Morocco Court Halves Sentence for Mother in Infant Abandonment Case

The Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeal of Guelmim has reclassified the facts attributed to the single mother prosecuted for having abandoned her daughter, a baby she "had left in a place sheltered from view, which would have led to her death" and has reduced her sentence by half. She had been sentenced to ten years in prison and has already served eight months in a cell in the Bouizakarne prison, reports Al Akhbar.

To read:

It all started with the discovery by a shepherd abandoned in the mountains near Sidi Ifni. He alerts the local authorities and the services of the Royal Gendarmerie. The latter arrive on the spot and note the facts. An investigation will then be opened. Three women likely to have given birth to this abandoned baby were identified. They were taken to the provincial hospital in Guelmim to verify the veracity of their statement.

The investigators discover that one of them had in the meantime ingested a toxic product. She would have tried to commit suicide. She was taken care of by the medical team of this hospital. Once recovered, this woman was heard by the services of the Royal Gendarmerie. She is the mother of the abandoned child. She identified a man, a resident of this same region, as the presumed father of her child. The latter denies all the facts that this woman accused him of. Nevertheless, he was presented to the public prosecutor, as well as the single woman. DNA tests revealed that he was not the father of the deceased baby. Only the mother of the baby will be the subject of a judicial prosecution.