Two individuals are being prosecuted in custody for the suspected rape of a minor in Azilal, while two others, including an authority officer, will be prosecuted at large. The case involves charges of grooming, indecent assault, and human trafficking, with the trial set for August 26. The prosecutor at the Azilal Court of First Instance ordered the prosecution of two individuals in custody for their suspected involvement in the rape of a minor residing in Douar Toufrine, Ait Tamlil commune, Demnat district, Azilal prefecture. Two other individuals, including an authority officer, will be prosecuted while at large, pending their trial, according to a statement to Yabiladi. Fatiha Chajri, a member of the Moroccan Network for Human Rights, Wealth Control, and Protection of Public Funds, stated to Yabiladi that the public prosecutor charged the first suspect in custody with grooming a minor under the age of 18 and indecent assault without violence. The second suspect faces charges of attempting to groom a minor under the age of 18 and persistent harassment of a minor through sexually explicit electronic messages. The association, in coordination with child protection association Touche Pas A Mon Enfant, has hired a lawyer to support the 16-year-old victim, she added. Mohamed Qaba, head of the AMDH branch in Demnat, told Yabiladi that the association had previously received a request for support from the victim's father, «A.A.» The association filed a complaint with the prosecutor at the Beni Mellal Court of Appeal against three individuals (the sheikh – local authorities representative - and the detainees), accusing them of «human trafficking, indecent assault of a minor, blackmail, failure to report a felony, mediating to conceal a felony, coercion to sign an obligation, and impersonation». «The minor was the victim of sexual assault, indecent assault, and trafficking by the suspects on two occasions, the first on Eid al-Adha last year and the second in April», he said, adding that one of the suspects had previously been prosecuted for indecent assault of a minor in Taklast, Ait Tamlil. He explained that one of the suspects had previously been prosecuted for defiling a minor in Taklast, Ait Tamlil, and that he was caught red-handed more than a year ago by the victim's uncle. When the uncle threatened to file a complaint, the first suspect intervened as an authority figure (sheikh) to convince the minor's mother to refrain from filing a complaint and offered to reach a reconciliation. Trying to cover up the assault The defendant, who assaulted the victim during Eid al-Adha last year, reached a «reconciliation» with the victim's father «by paying 10,000 dirhams and leaving the village for a year in exchange for not reporting him». «The failure to report this crime on time, whether by the minor's parents or any member of his family, encouraged a group of human monsters with homosexual tendencies to molest the minor child and take advantage of his weakness, fragility, and lack of awareness to assault him many times after this incident», the activist said. He added that last April, the minor's mother was surprised while checking WhatsApp on her son's phone and found voice messages sent from the third defendant's phone «containing a sexual conversation in which the minor invites the victim to repeat the process of having sex with him as he had done on previous occasions», according to the complaint, a copy of which was seen by Yabiladi. She then decided to file a complaint and bring her son to a doctor for a medical certificate, but the authority officer intervened again to discourage her from filing the complaint. He told her that he would intervene with the third suspect to obtain appropriate compensation as they had done with the other suspect, while forcing him to leave the village for two full years. «Instead, the authority figure tried to implicate two other rivals who had nothing to do with the incident. He taught the victim their names and published an audio recording of the victim accusing them. The third suspect paid 10,000 dirhams and signed a commitment in Ait Tamlil commune that he would not come to the village for two years, and the 'sheikh' handed over 7,000 dirhams to the victim's father and kept the rest». In its complaint, the association demanded that a medical examination be conducted on the minor victim and that a technical examination be conducted on the phones of the suspects and the minor victim to identify all the numbers that contacted him, and to arrest anyone found to be involved in the assault. The association also demanded measures to ensure that the suspects do not contact the victim and to prevent him from making specific statements, as has already been done by the suspect who is keeping a recording of the minor victim. The trial of those involved has been set for August 26. In addition to this incident, Mohamed Qaba said that the AMDH received a complaint from a woman living in Boughrart, Imlil, regarding the repeated sexual abuse of her 13-year-old daughter, who attends middle school, by a single individual.
