Crime & Justice, Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa

DEATH PENALTY: Abolition Still a Mere Dream in Morocco

Abderrahim El Ouali

CASABLANCA, Nov 9 2006 (IPS) - Ambiguity among key cabinet members about capital punishment has emboldened the interior minister to crack down on abolitionist demonstrations and quashed – for now – chances of a repeal of Morocco’s death penalty laws.

Still, human rights groups say that while their dream of abolishing the death penalty must be put on hold for now, they are convinced police actions paradoxically will serve the abolitionist movement.

The Moroccan Coalition Against the Death Penalty was not allowed to hold a sit-in outside of Parliament on Oct. 10 to commemorate the world day against capital punishment. The interior ministry would not say why the peaceful civil demonstration was not allowed to take place.

In response, Driss Ould El Kabla, a member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), told IPS that a lawsuit against the minister was now being prepared.

“Forbidding the sit-in will serve the abolitionists more than allowing it would have done,” he said. If the proceedings are accepted by justice, “everyone will know about it for a long period of time.” If the sit-in had been allowed to happen, the public would have long forgotten about it, he added.

That key decision by the minister of interior is now being changed into a pressure card on the Moroccan government, he said.

Bouchra Khiari, deputy of the opposition party le Front des Forces Démocratiques (FFD), introduced a bill in October to abolish the ultimate punishment. By law, the bill must be approved by the government before it is brought to parliament for a vote.

Abolitionists believe they have enough support for the bill to pass if it were brought before the lawmakers. Up to now, government has made no decision on whether to allow it to be discussed, Mohamed Nabil Benabdellah, minister of communication and government spokesman, told IPS.

“There is not any official position. The bill has not been studied yet,” the minister said.

Human rights observers believe the issue pits the justice minister, who supports abolition, against the interior minister, who opposes it. The absence of an official position on the death penalty probably encouraged security officials to forbid the Oct. 10 sit-in, Michel Taube, president of the World Coalition Against Death Penalty (WCADP), wrote to IPS in an email.

Ambiguity within the government allows “easy police errors and many security slip-ups,” he said.

Since the accession of King Mohamed VI to the throne in 1999, Morocco has been in a transitional period. Many reforms concerning human rights have been introduced but resistance is strong.

“In spite of recent reforms and developments started by King Mohamed VI, there is still a long way” to go for death penalty abolition, Taube added.

The transitional process towards democracy and human rights brings “an alternation of acceleration and braking that is strongly influenced by actuality and by some opposing currents in the entourage of the King,” Taube added.

Security officials refused an IPS interview request. “Under current circumstances, a demand for permission to give you an interview will simply be ignored,” said one security official who asked not to be named.

Resistance to death penalty abolition comes mainly from a handful of powerful security officials, especially from “those who were responsible of human rights violations during the years of oppression,” Ould El Kabla said.

Morocco lived a long period of human rights violations, from independence in 1956 through the 1990s. King Mohamed VI founded the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) to make amends with victims of that period commonly known as “The Years of Lead.”

However, many senior security figures from that time still occupy powerful positions in decision-making spheres.

The IER recommended abolition of capital punishment in its final report last year. Although security officials’ resistance to abolition is strong, some encouraging signs exist to bring hope to human rights activists.

King Mohamed VI has not signed any execution decrees since his accession to the throne in 1999, Taube said.

In addition, Morocco’s Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa declared during the 61st session of United Nations Human Rights Commission, held March 2005, to be in favour of abolishing the death penalty.

Still, the minister’s declaration was seen more as a personal conviction than an official position of the government and the King.

“The official position towards abolition is not clear yet,” Ould El Kabla said, “though many high officials support it.”

Death penalty advocates among security officials argue that capital punishment historically was necessary to quell two attempts on the King’s life in the early 1970s.

Abolitionists counter that an eventual repeal of capital punishment would quell discontent in the first place. “It would allow the kingdom to strengthen its image as a mindful country of human rights, a democratic country that respects society and rights,” Taube said.

“The political support provided to Morocco by the international community will be reinforced, above all within relationships between Morocco and the European Union,” he added.