Topless activists deported from Morocco
Publish date: 18 April 2016
Issue Number: 673
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Morocco
Two topless activists who demanded that the Moroccan Government decriminalise homosexuality have been deported. The Femen movement activists were protesting outside the Beni Mellal trial of two homosexuals and five men who allegedly attacked them. A report on the Sun Daily site notes that local authorities accused the protesters, who are both French nationals, of having attempted to ‘damage public morals’. The report says one of the victims in the attack was sentenced to four months in jail for ‘acts against nature’, but he was released because he had spent that amount of time in custody. The other victim was handed a four-month suspended sentence for ‘sexual deviancy’. Two of the assailants received jail terms of between four and six months while another two were acquitted. A fifth will be tried later in a juvenile court. Rights organisations have demanded that Morocco decriminalise homosexuality, which is punishable by up to three years in jail, the report states.