Moroccan Man Faces Fourth Trial in Morocco for 2005 Belgian Child Murder Case

Mounir Kiouh, 40, will be retried on appeal for the murder of Théa Gramtine, a 2-year-old baby, who died in a hospital on November 10, 2005 from the fatal blows he had inflicted on her in the family apartment in Namur. The MRE was the new partner of Jennifer Devos, the child’s mother. She was absent at the time of the events. In Belgium, the alleged murderer had been placed under an arrest warrant, then released after 18 months of pre-trial detention. He had appeared free before the Namur Correctional Court in June 2011, and had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for intentional violence resulting in death without intent to do so, recalls L’Avenir.

Dissatisfied, he had appealed. He was convicted in absentia to the same sentence on appeal on December 22, 2011. Five days later, he fled to Morocco, thinking he had gotten away with it, because the kingdom does not extradite its nationals. But, according to Article 707 of the Moroccan Code of Criminal Procedure, any Moroccan who has committed a crime abroad and is present on the territory of the kingdom can be prosecuted there, provided that the judgment is not final. Aware of this opening, Jennifer Devos and the ex-in-laws went to Tetouan, Morocco, in 2019, to file a complaint. The MRE was arrested, charged with the murder of a minor child, and then incarcerated.

The criminal chamber of Tetouan sentenced Mounir Kiouh at the end of November to 20 years of criminal imprisonment for intentional violence resulting in death without intent to do so. During the trial, he "again denied the facts, arguing that the little girl had fallen from the mezzanine. Which is not logical given the findings of the investigators and the forensic pathologist," explained the Tangier lawyer, Fouad Harouach, who defended the interests of the victim’s family, with the Bar President Brahim Semlali. The debates will focus on the intent to kill during the appeal trial that will open before the Court of Appeal of Tetouan on Thursday.

Notified late, the family of little Théa will not be able to go to Morocco to attend the hearings. "All we hope for today is that he will be convicted again and that he will remain in prison," Karine Gramtine, Théa’s aunt, told L’Avenir.