King Mohammed VI pardoned more than 5,000 detainees on Sunday to prevent the new coronavirus from contaminating Moroccan prisons, the justice ministry said.
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The monarch "granted his pardon to 5654 detainees and ordered to take all necessary measures to strengthen the protection of detainees in penal establishments," the ministry said in a statement. The pardoned prisoners were selected according to "their age, their state of health, the length of their detention and their good behavior" , according to the text.
They will be released "in stages" , taking into account "the exceptional circumstances associated with the state of health emergency and the necessary precautions" . The ministry does not specify if detainees from "Hirak", a protest movement that agitated Morocco in 2016-2017, are among the pardoned.
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Morocco, which listed Sunday 960 cases of contamination with 66 deaths and 69 cures, has taken drastic measures by closing its borders and declaring a health emergency in mid-March to limit the spread of the Covid pandemic. 19.