chargement...
Earlier on Tuesday, women, children and men from a small village named Imi Agadir joined a rally to denounce the release of a man suspected of raping a six-year-old girl named Ikram. They gathered, in particular, to demand that his prosecution continues, calling for a heavy sentence.
The rally was held while an online petition was launched, demanding that the alleged rapist return to prison. More than 50,000 people have signed the petition, launched on the Change platform. The online campaign and the rally come two days after local association Ifous Forum for Democracy and Human Rights warned that the man could escape justice.
Pressured
Based a few kilometers away from Ikram’s village, the NGO took charge of the young girl, through the associative support center, dedicated to women and children victims of violence. In a statement, it wrote that the facts were revealed to the father through local health officials, who conducted a medical examination on the victim on June 4.
Des pressions derrière un premier abandon des poursuites
«A confidential letter was sent to the general prosecutor at the Court of Appeal in Agadir and the suspect was arrested by the gendarmerie and placed in preventive detention». However, the man was released on bail on June 6. «Under pressure», the day before, the father abandoned the lawsuit.
Seeing his daughter's state of health deteriorate, the father changed his mind and turned to the association to restart legal proceedings. The president of the Forum, Mohamed Oucharfat told Yabiladi that a meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, so that the correctional chamber of the Court of Appeal of Agadir reconsider the release decision.
A re-examination of the file scheduled for Wednesday
The association indicated that the alleged rape would have taken place at the end of May, when Ikram «went to play with the daughters of the suspect, at his home». «Because of the lockdown and the family's hesitation, the complaint was not made until ten days after the rape», added the president of the Ifous Forum.
Oucharfat announced that his association has joined the lawsuit in order to support the child. Deeply traumatized by this act, the latter now benefits from adequate psychological follow-up, through the support center affiliated with the NGO.
In this context, the Ifous Forum calls on human rights associations «at local, regional and national levels» to continue their actions of monitoring and reporting similar cases, despite the constraints that come with the health emergency. «The cells for listening to and combating violence against women and children must continue to monitor the situation», the NGO insists.
