Moroccan Rights Group Demands Probe into Tourist Death, Decries Sex Tourism

In a statement, the Moroccan Association of Human Rights states that several defendants were presented before the Court of First Instance of Marrakech on Friday evening, following the death of the young woman under mysterious circumstances and that the prosecution has decided to prosecute a Kuwaiti national and a Moroccan national manager of the tourist complex who are in custody. 7 other Kuwaiti nationals are placed under judicial control with an obligation to pay a bail of 10,000 dirhams each. Three young Moroccan women are also placed under judicial control with a bail of 5,000 dirhams each. They are accused of seducing a minor under 18 years of age, of indecent assault without violence, of corruption, of incitement to prostitution, of protecting the practice of prostitution and of drug use.

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The charges against all the accused are not commensurate with the acts attributed to them, because talking about indecent assault on a minor without violence is not consistent, given that the rape and sexual exploitation of a minor are considered violence according to international human rights law, says the Moroccan Association of Human Rights. It will add that the referral decision has omitted and excluded the suspicion of a crime of human trafficking, which constitutes a serious violation of human rights and national law that criminalizes it, especially since some of its foundations are established. It also deplores the fact that the decision did not mention anything about the mysterious death of the young Moroccan woman.

Based on these findings, the AMDH, Marrakech section, calls for the strengthening of sanctions in cases of sexual exploitation of minors and cases of sexual exploitation of women, which can rise to the level of a crime of human trafficking, for the strengthening of the supervision of tourist establishments and their submission to respect the conditions of tourism. Its wish is that justice respects the rules of justice and equity, and orders the dismissal and referral of the case to the criminal chamber of the court of appeal. For the association, it is necessary to put an end to the phenomenon of sex tourism and to vigorously fight the mafias operating in this field in connection with the fight against drugs, including hard drugs.