Three Moroccan thugs sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment

Three young criminals who committed several acts of stabbing and attempted rape have been heavily convicted by the criminal division of the Casablanca Court of Appeal.

They are three young men, aged respectively twenty-one, twenty-three and twenty-six, without profession, who appear, this day of June, before the three magistrates of the criminal chamber close to the Court of Appeal of Casablanca. Charged, under arrest, with criminal conspiracy, robbery, attempted rape, threatening with a knife, assault and battery, all three categorically deny any wrongdoing. They assert that they never attacked the victims, who lodged a complaint against them and confirmed to the judicial police investigators that they were indeed the criminals who assaulted them while threatening them with knives. They also confessed to their crimes during questioning by the judicial police. Basing himself on their statements recorded in the minutes, the representative of the public prosecutor’s office asserted in his closing remarks that the statements recorded in the minutes confirmed their confessions, while expressing his astonishment at seeing them exonerate themselves when, before the investigators, they had detailed the operations of the assaults they had perpetrated throughout the four corners of the city. We learn from the minutes of their hearings that they were travelling on two mopeds, the fruit of theft, and that they assaulted several victims, including a young man who put up some resistance. This behavior cost him a serious arm injury requiring seven stitches. They also tried to rape a young girl after taking her smartphone, a gold bracelet and earrings, and six hundred dirhams. On her way home at a late hour, she came face to face with these three young thugs, who forced her to stop and snatch her handbag, which they then searched. At knifepoint, they attempted to kidnap and rape her. But when she asked for help, one of them slapped her and the other two fled. Fortunately, two motorcycle policemen on a routine patrol heard the screams and intervened to save her and arrest the thug. Questioned, he gave the names of his accomplices, who were caught 24 hours later.
 Taking the floor, their defense lawyer, acting as a legal aid lawyer, pleaded that they should be granted extenuating circumstances, since they had no previous criminal record. After deliberations, the court delivered its verdict, sentencing each of the three thugs to 10 years’ imprisonment.