12:21 PM
Thursday, May 18, 2023
(agencies)
A Moroccan court has sentenced a gang of 4 people to 10 years in prison each for the gang rape of a woman after she was kidnapped from her mother in Essaouira.
The Moroccan newspaper “News” that the lenient sentence against the defendants will raise a great debate and controversy throughout Morocco considering the gravity of the offense committed by the four defendants, in conjunction with the consideration of the appeal of the initial sentence.
The case dates back to the end of last April, when a gang of 4 young men raided a house in Essaouira inhabited by a woman in her forties and her twenty-year-old daughter. They assaulted the mother, kidnapped her daughter, then detained her in an abandoned house, and took turns raping her for a whole night, then threw her in a vacant lot the next morning.
After informing the victim, the Moroccan security authorities were able to identify and arrest the accused (3 adults and a minor).
Investigations revealed that the defendants kidnapped the victim, transported her on a motorcycle, then raped her in a deserted place alternately, then transferred her to a house, where they raped her collectively and released her in the morning.
Investigations indicated that one of the defendants is the victim’s neighbor, and he confessed his admiration for her, and when he learned that she had become divorced, he told his three friends of his plan to kidnap and rape her.
The investigation authorities charged the defendants with forming a criminal gang, kidnapping under the threat of a knife, rape, beating and wounding.
