Background

Influential forces are pushing in opposite directions on Morocco’s justice system. In cases with a political coloring, courts continue to deny defendants the right to a fair trial by convicting them on the basis of confessions that they say the police extracted under torture or coercion, without the court making an earnest effort to probe their claims. This practice reinforces an impression that the courts serve as an extension of the state’s repressive security apparatus.

But there is also a logic propelling Morocco to accelerate the pace of reform. Its leaders wish Morocco to be recognized, both domestically and internationally, as a regional model on human rights. When pro-reform street protests erupted in Morocco in February 2011, the authorities responded not by repressing them blindly but by promising a new constitution and calling early elections. While resolutely and successfully opposing proposals at the United Nations Security Council to give a human rights mandate to the peacekeeping mission in the contested Western Sahara, Morocco argues that it is on its own making great strides on human rights.

The official discourse on reform emphasizes the task of reforming the judiciary including by enhancing its independence. This has been a theme for several years in the public pronouncements of Morocco’s leaders, including King Mohammed VI. The 2011 constitution contains a remarkable number of provisions that, if implemented, would advance this objective.  

A New Constitution

In July 2011, Moroccan voters approved into law a new constitution rich in affirmations of human rights, including some that did not figure in the previous constitution, promulgated in 1996. These affirmations must still be translated into laws and practices that curtail ongoing violations. The leap forward in rights language suggests, nonetheless, a willingness on the part of Morocco to set for itself a high standard by which its laws and practices are to be judged.

One of the realms in which the new constitution breaks new ground is in promoting judicial independence and the rights of persons before the courts. King Mohammed VI said that the constitutional provisions “stipulate legal guarantees of judicial independence and consecrate the judiciary as an independent power equal to those of the legislative and executive branches.”

The king said these provisions culminated a campaign to reform the judiciary, started in 2009. In a speech on August 20 of that year, he announced an "in-depth, comprehensive reform of the judicial system" to "make justice more trustworthy, credible, effective, and equitable, because it serves as a strong shield to protect the rule of law." He spoke of "moralizing justice and shielding it from corruption and abuse of authority," and of strengthening guarantees of judicial independence.[3]

The king has continued to emphasize the importance of judicial reform since then. On May 8, 2012, he inaugurated the High Commission of National Dialogue on Reforming the Judiciary, a 40-member body charged with leading a national debate that would result in a charter for overhauling the judiciary.[4] On July 30, 2012, a holiday commemorating his accession to the throne 13 years earlier, he declared:

Our starting point is that the rule of law is the source of all progress. This is why we put justice first among our reform projects. Now that the new constitution has placed judicial reform at the heart of its structures, the conditions are now in place to succeed in this major endeavor.[5]

Since its creation, the high commission, presided over by Minister of Justice and Liberties Mustapha Ramid, has convened a series of conferences in cities across the country on different facets of judicial reform. Ramid opened the eighth such conference, devoted to judicial independence, held in the city of Agadir on January 11-12, 2013. There he announced that a “national charter” on judicial reform would be ready by March 2013.[6] It had not been released publicly at the time this report went to print.

One reform that should be a priority is revising the laws to end to the trial of civilian defendants in military courts in peacetime. The National Council for Human Rights made this and other recommendations to King Mohammed VI in February 2013, citing both the constitution and Morocco’s international treaty obligations. On March 2, the king “welcomed” these recommendations.

Enduring Bad Practices

The push to guarantee defendants a fair trial requires a break with prevailing practices. Human Rights Watch and other international and Moroccan human rights organizations have documented tens of cases in the past decade where Moroccan courts convicted citizens due to unfair judicial proceedings. It is not possible to specify the number of “political prisoners” or the number of prisoners who were convicted unjustly. Beyond the handful of persons who are clearly in prison in violation of human rights because they were charged and convicted for their nonviolent speech or political activity, there are hundreds more defendants who were convicted of recognizably criminal offenses—such as drug-trafficking or serving a terrorist organization—but who claim that they are innocent of these charges and were convicted on the basis of flawed evidence. It is not feasible for us to assess how many, if any, of their claims, are true.

Others claim that they were prosecuted on criminal charges fabricated to retaliate against them for unrelated reasons having to do with their politics or whistle-blowing activities. To gauge the frequency of unjust convictions would require examining trials one-by-one and the evidentiary basis for the charges, an undertaking beyond the scope of this report. This report presents one persuasive example of charges that appear to have been fabricated to retaliate against a person for being outspoken toward the authorities: Zakaria Moumni, who was convicted of fraud apparently to punish him for lobbying the king and the royal palace to secure a government job he believed was his due.

In spite of the prohibition on torture and Morocco’s recognition of it, torture and mistreatment of criminal suspects remains a serious problem in Morocco. The torture and ill-treatment of suspects in custody and specifically under interrogation remains a problem in Morocco, as affirmed by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture after his mission to Morocco in September 2012.[7] Human Rights Watch has interviewed numerous detainees and former detainees over the past decade who credibly described abuse to which security forces subjected them while in custody, including beatings, threats, denial of food and water, sleep deprivation, and other means that constitute torture or ill-treatment.[8]