The Royal Gendarmerie of Irherm, in the province of Taroudant, 440 kilometers south of Rabat (Morocco), arrested an imam yesterday for the rape of an underage girl, reported several Moroccan media outlets.



The rape goes back to last February when the imam was surprised in the company of an underage girl in a firewood storage room. Married, the imam had tried to cover up the crime by trying to minimise the seriousness of the allegations but failed to convince the inhabitants of the douar (a rural administrative division). The parents of the victim decided to file a complaint and to bring the imam before the courts.

Following the crime report, Moroccan Gendarmerie arrested the imam yesterday pending his presentation before the Court of Appeal of Agadir, once the investigation is completed.

The case shook the inhabitants of this douar located in the commune of Azghar near Taroudant. The same news sources added that the rapist is a muezzin (senior imam who does the call to prayer) of the mosque.

The local press also points out that this rape is reminiscent of another recent case in Morocco. In fact, last month, the Marrakech Court of Appeal sentenced an imam to a five-year prison sentence, as well as a fine of 50,000 dirhams and 10,000 dirhams for each of his 7 victims, all minors aged 8 to 16 years.

