Moroccan Imam Faces Appeal in Child Rape Case Involving Quranic Students

Sentenced in the first instance to a 5-year prison sentence and damages up to 30,000 dirhams for the benefit of the victims’ families, the religious man must go back to court after the appeal filed by human rights associations who are now demanding a much harsher sentence.

According to Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, this 41-year-old imam who officiated in a mosque where he taught classes was the father of two children. It was the complaint of the parents of a 16-year-old girl that sparked the scandal. The young girl had run away from home last year after a marriage proposal.

A few days later, she was found at a train station in Casablanca and she told her parents that she had been raped several times by the imam of the Setti Fatma mosque where she lived and that she feared her future husband would discover that she was no longer a virgin and that dishonor would fall on her family.

A complaint was immediately filed by her parents with the Gendarmerie and an investigation revealed that 6 other minors aged 8 to 16 had also been raped by the religious man. The latter would ask his students to tidy up the room after class and then abuse them.