Human Rights Watch slams “unfair” jailing of men for gay sex in Morocco

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human_rights_watch_two_men_jailed_gay_sex_moroccoHuman Rights Watch and Morocco’s Aswat Group for Sexual Minorities say that two men have been jailed for consensual homosexual activity, despite their constitutional right to private life.

According to the organisations, a court in the Moroccan Mediterranean city of al Hoceima convicted the men of sodomy in a very brief trial held only five days after their December 13, 2014 arrest.

They were convicted based on “confessions” the police claim the defendants made in pre-trial detention but that the defendants repudiated before the judge. The court called no witnesses to testify. An appeals court upheld the sentence on December 30.

“The combination of a state that enforces sodomy laws, a justice system that denies a fair trial, and the social stigma attached to homosexuality is a formula for damaging people’s lives,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa Director.

The appeals court upheld the conviction for committing a “deviant sexual act with a member of the same sex” and “public indecency”, but reduced the sentences for both men from three years in prison and a fine to six months for one and one year for the other, who was also convicted of attempted bribery for trying to get out of being arrested.

Human Rights Watch said that it has documented a pattern by which Moroccan courts violate the right to a fair trial by simply relying on confessions,which may have been coerced, to convict defendants.

“Defendants in many cases or their lawyers have repeatedly told Human Rights Watch that the police either forced or intimidated the defendants into signing their statements without reading them,” it claimed.

Moroccan law penalises what it refers to as acts of “sexual deviancy” between members of the same sex, a term that police reports and court documents use to refer to homosexuality.

Morocco’s 2011 Constitution states, however, that “All persons have the right to protection of their private life.” This right, absent in the previous constitution, should lead to the abolition of the law criminalising consensual same-sex conduct, Human Rights Watch and Aswat said.

The two men were arrested after a group of police officers stopped a car on a coastal road in al Hoceima province. The found two men inside, one of whom, according to police, “showed signs of homosexuality (sexual deviancy) in his movements, manner of speaking and behaviour.”

Police claim that that the younger man confessed that he had “sex with his co-accused in his car for money on six occasions” and that the older confessed to paying for sex and using his car for “hunting for homosexual victims, and in which I satisfy my desires.”

The older defendant is an elected local official in his 50s and the other a student in his 20s. The men denied making these confessions in court and denied the charges.

Human rights activists in Morocco say that similar prosecutions on sodomy charges go unreported due to the social stigma and the reluctance of most activists to rally to their defence.

“The shame attached to homosexuality in Morocco intimidates many of those who might otherwise defend people they believe to have been wrongly convicted,” said a member of Aswat. “That’s something that should worry not just homosexuals but all Moroccans.”

“If Morocco truly aspires to be a regional leader on human rights, it should lead the way in decriminalizing homosexual conduct,” Whitson added.

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