The government approves a draft law on criminal procedure

Agadir24 | Agadir24/A.M.E

Today, Thursday, August 29, 2024, the Government Council approved Draft Law No. 03.23 amending and supplementing Law No. 22.01 relating to criminal procedure, taking into account the comments raised.

The Minister Delegate to the Head of Government in charge of Relations with Parliament, Government Spokesman, Mustapha Baitas, explained during a press conference following the weekly meeting of the Council, that this draft law, presented by the Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Wahbi, aims to review Law No. 22.01 relating to criminal procedure, more than twenty years after its issuance.

Baitas added that this draft law falls within the framework of modernizing the national legal system, as it is considered one of the most important axes for achieving the comprehensive and profound project to reform the justice system in the Kingdom, which His Majesty King Mohammed VI has been calling for on several occasions.

According to the Minister, this draft law comes in the context of the important human rights developments witnessed by the Kingdom, which were primarily represented by the issuance of the Kingdom’s Constitution in 2011, and its approval of a group of rights and freedoms and the establishment of mechanisms to protect them and guarantee their exercise.

According to Baitas, the draft revision of the Criminal Procedure Code took into account achieving a balance between protecting society from crime, protecting its security and stability, and protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals, noting that this revision included more than 420 articles.

In this regard, he explained that the draft law includes a set of important developments represented in strengthening fair trial guarantees, by rationalizing the use of custody and considering it an exceptional measure, rationalizing pretrial detention with precise definition of its legal controls; strengthening the rights of defense; modernizing criminal justice mechanisms; combating crime with modern means; and protecting victims.

The draft law also includes new developments concerning criminal policy, by setting new controls to frame criminal policy as part of the state’s general policies, defining it and determining its executive forms; protecting juveniles; simplifying the formalities of appeals and transferring its powers to enhance the independence of the Public Prosecution.

In addition, this project includes legal developments concerning the implementation of penalties, by expanding the powers of the judge implementing the penalties and motivating prisoners to be disciplined through the automatic penalty reduction system.