Moroccan Woman Faces Jail Time for WhatsApp Affair, Sparking Adultery Law Debate

It all started with a complaint filed by a man against his wife with whom he has a child. The husband discovered that his wife was cheating on him with her ex-boyfriend. The latter often visited the home of his grandmother, who was the neighbor of the woman. After obtaining her phone number, she began communicating with him via the WhatsApp application. She exchanged text messages and compromising videos with him.

During her interrogation, the wife admitted the facts to the judicial police. But she tried to deny them before the court, even though the circumstances and evidence of the case confirmed her involvement in adultery. Considering that the confession of the accused during the preliminary investigation before the judicial police constituted a recognition in criminal matters in accordance with the provisions of Article 290 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which is an autonomous means of proof subject to the discretionary appreciation of the trial judges and does not require other means of proof to corroborate it, and relying on Article 491 of the Penal Code which punishes adultery, the court of first instance of the city of Mohammedia sentenced the married woman to two months in prison and an obligation to compensate her husband in the amount of 5,000 dirhams.