Morocco’s lower house approves alternative sentencing bill

Morocco’s House of Representatives on Tuesday approved, by majority, Bill No. 43.22 on alternative sentencing.

Presenting this project, which received 115 votes for, 41 against and 4 abstentions, Justice Minister, Abdellatif Ouahbi, said that the bill aims to establish an integral legal framework for alternative sentencing, either based on the fundamental principles of criminal law in terms of sanctions or by establishing mechanisms and procedural standards at the Code of Criminal Procedure, for the monitoring and implementation of alternative sentencing.

This bill lays the foundations for an effective penal policy aimed at overcoming the problems posed by criminal justice, in particular those linked to short-term custodial sentences and their relationship with the problem of prison overcrowding, particularly by introducing the daily fine and allowing those given sentences, having acquired the force of res judicata, to be able to benefit again from alternative sentences, the minister pointed out.

Ouahbi added that the bill also aims to find solutions to minor crimes according to an approach of rehabilitation and integration outside the prison framework, to promote the spirit of citizenship, duty and commitment, in particular through the community service sentence, and to contribute to reducing overcrowding in prisons.

In this regard, he underlined that half of the prison population is sentenced to short-term sentences, pointing out that this “impacts numerous programs and services developed by the prison administration, and increases the financial cost for prisoners.