Moroccan Imam Sentenced to 5 Years for Sexual Abuse of 7 Minors

According to the newspaper Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, the religious leader was sentenced to 5 years in prison for sexually abusing 7 minors. This sentence is accompanied by fines of 50,000 dirhams for one of the victims and 10,000 dirhams for each of the other victims.

Last May, a 16-year-old girl ran away from home just after a marriage proposal. She was found a few days later in Casablanca and she confessed to her parents that she had been raped by the imam of the Setti Fatma mosque. She was afraid, she said, that her future husband would discover that she was no longer a virgin.

A complaint was then 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 imam. The latter would ask his students to tidy up the room after class and then abuse them.

The rapist imam also had to pay a symbolic one dirham to an NGO for the defense of human rights, which joined the case as a civil party.