Moroccan Rights Group Investigates Escape of Kuwaiti Rape Suspect

The day after the escape of Abderrahman Mohammed Samrane, a Kuwaiti tourist, prosecuted for "rape" of a minor in Marrakech, with the intervention of the Kuwaiti embassy in Morocco, the government has chosen its line of defense: "We are acting in accordance with the laws and the capacities we have." It also stressed that the case is before the judiciary and that "it cannot be discussed," said government spokesman Hassan Abyaba.

According to the association, the 24-year-old Kuwaiti was granted provisional release by the Criminal Chamber of the Marrakech Court of Appeal on January 28, without being placed under judicial supervision. It further states that this defendant was indicted without the Moroccan authorities confiscating his passport. It also condemns the intervention of the Kuwaiti embassy in Morocco in the release of the accused, while bringing to the attention of the high judicial authorities of Morocco the allegations of financial extortion and negotiation that would be linked to this case.

Even if the victim has renounced to prosecute the alleged rapist, the associative actors have called on the judicial authorities to "activate all national legal mechanisms and bilateral agreements, as well as international human rights law," in order to bring the accused to trial again, and to continue his trial in his presence, and not in absentia.

The association did not fail to demand the opening of an investigation into the provisional release of the Kuwaiti accused, without having subjected him to judicial control and without having initiated a procedure to prohibit him from leaving the national territory.