The case had revived the debate on the death penalty in Morocco.
Moroccan justice sentenced to death on Wednesday the man who killed little Adnane, an 11-year-old man from Tangier whom he had kidnapped and raped.
The boy's body was found buried under a tree not far from his home on the night of September 11 to 12, five days after his disappearance in the popular district of Tangier where he lived.
"The court was convinced of the involvement of the main accused in the crime of premeditated murder, associated with the kidnapping, kidnapping and embezzlement of a minor," said the Moroccan press agency MAP on Wednesday.
The convict, a 24-year-old worker, had sent the parents a ransom demand to make it look like a kidnapping.
He is accused of taking the boy to the apartment he was renting, sexually assaulting him and then killing him before burying him nearby.
His roommates get four months in prison on Wednesday for “not denouncing a crime”.
Capital punishment once again at the heart of the debate
If the death penalty is still in force in the Moroccan kingdom, it has not been applied since 1993. Between 2000 and 2019, 119 death row prisoners received a royal pardon and their sentences were commuted to prison to life imprisonment or fixed-term sentences, according to the same source.
At the end of 2020, the National Human Rights Council counted 74 people sentenced to death in Morocco.
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Calls for execution resurface when certain cases mobilize public opinion, such as that of little Adnane.
In September, the anger of some citizens led to a national debate on the issue and the creation of petitions demanding justice.
The case has also relaunched the debate on child protection, in a country regularly marked by cases of pedophilia and where NGOs call for strengthening the fight against sexual predators.
