MOROCCO: WORLD COALITION AGM OPENS WITH PLEA FOR ABOLITION

Morocco is moving gradually towards the abolition of the death penalty and the adoption of the draft constitutional revision on July 1, which establishes the right to life, will accelerate this process, a senior Moroccan official.
“Morocco is moving gradually towards the abolition of the death penalty,” said in Rabat the Ministry of Justice’s director for penal affairs Mohamed Abdennabaoui,
“If the proposed constitutional amendment that enshrines for the first time the right to life is adopted on 1 July, it will speed up the process to abolish the death penalty,” said Abdennabaoui, who leads the most important branch of the Ministry of Justice of Morocco.
Mr. Abdennabaoui was speaking on the sidelines of the opening of the General Assembly of the International Coalition against the Death Penalty, held for the first time in an Arab country.
A draft reform of the current Moroccan constitution, which strengthens the powers of the Prime Minister while preserving the political and religious powers of the king, will be submitted to a popular referendum on July 1.
“I personally am in favor of the death penalty be abolished,” has said.
Some 103 death row prisoners, including two women, are awaiting execution in Morocco, said Abdennabaoui, who presented these figures as the “latest official figures.”
Participants at the meeting Federico Mayor Zaragoza, president of the International Commission against the death penalty, Eneko Landaburu, the EU ambassador to Morocco, and Abderrahim Jamai, of the Moroccan Coalition against the death penalty.