29/10/2011 Political Affairs and Democracy
Strasbourg, 29.10.2011 – Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the “Request for Partner for Democracy status with PACE* by the Parliament of Morocco”, expressed his concern about the announcement last night, by the anti-terrorist court of Salé (Morocco), of the sentencing to death of the main accused in the bombing that killed 17 people late April in Marrakech.
"When the Moroccan parliament was granted the status of Partner for Democracy last June, it undertook to pursue its efforts to raise the awareness of the public authorities and the main players in politics and civil society of the need to make progress in the discussion of the death penalty and to encourage the authorities concerned to maintain the de facto moratorium that has been established on executions of the death penalty since 1993,” Mr Volontè recalled. This execution would stand in contrast with the commitments made by Morocco," he said. “The death penalty, wherever it takes place, is simply unjustifiable," he stressed.
Death penalty, which is still included in the Moroccan penal code, is not applied in Morocco since 1993.
*This new status was introduced by the PACE in 2010 in order to strengthen institutional co-operation with parliaments of non-member states in neighbouring regions wishing to participate in the political debate on common challenges which transcend European boundaries.