Morocco Divided Over Death Penalty After Child’s Murder Shocks Nation

It was a DGSN press release on Saturday morning, announcing the worst that opened the debate: rape and premeditated murder. The child’s body was buried under a tree in a park in the same neighborhood where he lived. Society is raging, the web is ablaze. It is the clash of positions on the death penalty:

"Death penalty", "castration", many voices have started chanting. "I am in favor of the death penalty for pedophiles and the media coverage of their profiles," says one internet user.

"We do not respond to human barbarity with the barbarity of the State... The fight against the death penalty is the victory of Man over his lowest instincts," reacted another on the web.

For Aziz Ghali, activist and president of AMDH, the largest association network fighting against human rights abuses in Morocco, the problem is of a criminal nature. "The problem with rape is that today the sentences are still too light," he said. "Today we need an Adnane law. There need to be firm and harsh sentences."

While rapes on girls and women are common and despite their media coverage, their perpetrators get off with rather light sentences.

The Adnane case is even more exasperating, since it is a boy; many cases have been silenced, because they are strictly taboo in Moroccan society.