The new judicial year 2022 opened on Wednesday in Rabat, with the High Approval of King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ).
Mohammed Abdennabaoui, deputy president of the CSPJ and first president of the Court of Cassation, stressed the importance of highlighting the efforts of the magistrates of the kingdom on this occasion, saying that it is also important to reveal the strategic objectives and future plans for the 2022 judicial year.
In a press release from the CSPJ, Abdennabaoui highlighted the fact that the Moroccan courts handled nearly 4.6 million cases in 2021, calling for more support for the Moroccan judicial system by recruiting more magistrates in upcoming years.
As a result, 44.4% more judgments were recorded than during the judicial year 2020, the official noted, pointing to the substantial increase in cases registered for the year 2021 (+38%).
Covid challenges
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the courts in the Kingdom have made significant efforts to perform their constitutional functions. For instance, they have decided on 100.02% of the different cases in progress, which amounts to 3,858,046 out of 3,857, 389 cases, according to the same source.
Despite these encouraging numbers, 753,315 cases were still pending in the various Moroccan courts at the end of the judicial year, observed Abdennabaoui, who added that each judge handled about 1,800 cases on average per year.
As he noted, in the same context, the number of cases pending before the courts exceed the resource capacity of the judiciary, with 89% of cases still being heard by the courts of the first instance (4,126,520 out of 4,611,361), highlighting the lack of resources in relation to a large number of cases.
Additionally, the Court of Cassation has been impacted by this crisis, as only 2% of the cases before this Court were heard in 2021, according to Abdennabaoui.
45,304 cases were decided in 2021 by the Court of Cassation, at a rate of 300 cases per adviser, he explained, warning about future difficulties the judicial system may face, especially with regard to decision times and the number of cases.
Abdennabaoui reported, in relation to the experience of remote trials, that 19,700 hearings took place remotely, having been able to process 425,000 cases and requiring 494,760 appearances by detainees as part of preventive measures linked to Covid-19’s spread.
Similarly, El Hassan Daki, the King’s Attorney General at the Court of Cassation and head of the Ministry of Public Security, noted that 45,304 cases were handled in 2021, an increase of 4,743 cases in comparison with the year 2020. The reason for this increase is the filing of 214 files per adviser per year, or 19 files per adviser per month, with 31 cases for counsel in the criminal chamber.
Furthermore, he noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the number of new cases that were registered for the year 2020 (31.448 cases, which is a decrease of 20,000 cases compared to 2019).
In addition, Daki highlighted the various challenges the magistrates and executives of the Court of Cassation face in light of the constant rise in the number of cases being filed, which is projected to reach 100,000 during the year 2022.
He highlighted the rising rate of pretrial detention in the first half of 2021, which stood at almost 46%, and attributed this increase to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Several presentations followed the opening of the new judicial year, including an overview of the new electronic portal of the CSPJ, a description of the council’s action plan for the period 2021-2026, and the information program for the publication of decisions issued by the Court of Cassation in the space reserved for judges.
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