The criminal law determines and constitutes as offences the acts of man which, by reason of the social disorder they cause, justify the application to their perpetrator of penalties or security measures.
Penal Code
Unofficial translation. The English interface is for information only — only the Arabic text published in the Bulletin Officiel is authentic. Read this page in العربية · Français
No one may invoke ignorance of the criminal law as an excuse.
No one may be convicted for an act that is not expressly provided as an offence by law, nor punished by penalties that the law has not enacted.
No one may be convicted for an act which, under the law in force at the time it was committed, did not constitute an offence.
No one may be convicted for an act which, by the effect of a law subsequent to its commission, no longer constitutes an offence; if a conviction has been pronounced, execution of the penalties, whether principal or accessory, shall be terminated.
Where several laws have been in force between the time the offence was committed and the final judgment, the law whose provisions are the least rigorous must be applied.
The provisions of Articles 5 and 6 above do not concern temporary laws. These, even after they have ceased to be in force, continue to govern offences committed during the period of their application.
No security measure may be pronounced except in the cases and under the conditions provided by law. The applicable security measures are those enacted by the law in force at the time of the judgment of the offence.
Execution of a security measure ceases when the act that gave rise to it no longer constitutes an offence by the effect of a subsequent law or when that security measure is itself abolished by law.
All persons, whether nationals, foreigners or stateless persons, who are on the territory of the Kingdom are subject to Moroccan criminal law, except for exceptions established by internal public law or international law.
Moroccan vessels or aircraft shall be considered as forming part of the territory, regardless of where they are, unless they are subject, under international law, to a foreign law.
Moroccan criminal law applies to offences committed outside the Kingdom when they fall within the jurisdiction of Moroccan criminal courts by virtue of the provisions of Articles 751 to 756 of the Code of Criminal Procedure4. 4 - Articles 707 to 712 of the aforementioned Law No. 22.01 on Criminal Procedure. - - BOOK ONE PENALTIES AND SECURITY MEASURES (Articles 13 to 109)
The penalties and security measures enacted in this Code apply to persons of full age of eighteen completed Gregorian years. The special rules provided in Book III of the Law on Criminal Procedure5 apply to juvenile offenders. TITLE ONE PENALTIES (Articles 14 to 60)
Penalties are principal or accessory. They are principal when they may be pronounced without being joined to any other penalty. They are accessory when they cannot be inflicted separately or when they are the consequences of a principal penalty. 5 - Article amended by Article 1 of Law No. 24.03 amending and supplementing the Pen…
The principal penalties are: criminal, correctional or contraventional.
A birth shall be declared to the civil registrar of the place where it occurred by the close relatives of the newborn in the following order: - The father or the mother; - The testamentary guardian; - The brother; - The nephew. - -
The principal correctional penalties are: 1 - Imprisonment; 2 - A fine of more than 1.200 dirhams6. The duration of the prison sentence is at least one month and at most five years, except in cases of recidivism or others where the law determines other limits.
The principal contraventional penalties are: 1 - Detention for less than one month; 2 - A fine of 30 dirhams to 1.200 dirhams7. 6 - Paragraph amended by Article 1 of Law No. 3-80 amending certain provisions of the Penal Code, promulgated by dahir No. 1-81-283 of 11 rejeb 1402 (6 May 1982), Bulletin Officiel No. 3636 of 15 ramada…
Text available in Arabic only.
Forced residence consists in assigning to the convicted person a place of residence or a determined perimeter, from which he may not move away without authorization during the duration fixed by the decision. This duration may not be less than five years when it is pronounced as a principal penalty. The decision convicting to for…
Civic degradation consists: 1° In the removal and exclusion of convicted persons from all public functions and all public employments or offices; 2° In deprivation of the right to be an elector or eligible and, in general, of all civil and political rights and of the right to wear any decoration; 8 - Articles 19 to 23 of the Pen…
Whenever civil degradation is pronounced as a principal penalty, it may be accompanied by imprisonment, the duration of which must be fixed by the sentencing decision and may never exceed five years. When civil degradation cannot be imposed because the offender is a Moroccan who has already lost his civil rights, or a foreigner, the applicable penalty shall be reclusion for five to ten years.
The penalty of imprisonment shall be served in one of the establishments intended for that purpose or in a special wing of a central prison, with compulsory work inside or outside, except in cases of established physical incapacity.
The penalty of detention shall be served in civil prisons or their annexes, with compulsory work inside or outside, except in cases of established physical incapacity.
The duration of any custodial penalty shall be calculated from the day on which the convicted person is detained pursuant to the decision that has become irrevocable. Where there has been preventive detention, it shall be deducted in full from the duration of the penalty and shall be calculated from the day on which the convicte…
Any person who voluntarily refrains from providing an abandoned newborn with the assistance or care required by his condition, or from informing the police services, the gendarmerie or the local authorities of the place where he was found, shall be liable to the penalties provided by the Penal Code. The two-month period may be i…
If it is verified that a woman sentenced to a custodial penalty is more than six months pregnant, she shall serve her sentence only forty days after her delivery. If she is already incarcerated, she shall benefit, for the necessary time, from the regime of preventive detention. The execution of custodial penalties shall be deferred for women who have given birth less than forty days before their conviction.
The husband and wife sentenced, even for different offences, to a term of imprisonment of less than one year and not detained on the day of judgment, shall not serve their sentence simultaneously if, proving a certain domicile, they have in their charge and under their protection a child under eighteen years of age who cannot be…
Where there has been preventive detention and only a fine is imposed, the judge may, by a specially reasoned decision, exempt the convicted person from all or part of that fine.
The fine consists in the obligation, for the convicted person, to pay to the Treasury a determined sum of money, counted in currency having legal tender in the Kingdom. 10 - See the provisions on the protection of children in difficult situations provided for in articles 512 to 517 of Law 22.01 relating to criminal procedure ref…
The accessory penalties are: 1° Legal interdiction; 2° Civil degradation; 3° Suspension of the exercise of certain civic, civil or family rights; 4° Loss or suspension of the right to pensions paid by the State and public establishments. However, this loss may not apply to persons responsible for the maintenance allowance of one…
Legal disqualification and civil degradation, when accessory, attach only to criminal penalties. They need not be pronounced and apply by operation of law.
Legal disqualification deprives the convicted person of the exercise of his patrimonial rights during the period of execution of the principal penalty. However, he always has the right to choose an agent to represent him in the exercise of his rights, under the control of the guardian designated in accordance with the provisions of the following article. 13 - Article supplemented by Article 2 of the aforementioned Law No. 24-03. - -
A guardian is designated, in the forms provided for persons under judicial interdiction14, to control the management of the property of the convicted legally disqualified person. If the latter has chosen an agent to administer his property, the agent shall remain under the control of the guardian and shall be answerable to him.…
When they pronounce a misdemeanour penalty, the courts may, in the cases determined by law and for a period of one to ten years, prohibit the convicted person from exercising one or more of the civic, civil or family rights referred to in Article 26. The courts may also apply the provisions of the first paragraph of this article when they pronounce a misdemeanour penalty for a terrorist offence15.
The definitive loss of the pension paid by the State attaches to any sentence of death or to a penalty of perpetual imprisonment. It need not be pronounced and applies by operation of law. Any sentence to a criminal penalty other than those provided for in the preceding paragraph may be accompanied by suspension of the right to…
Confiscation consists in the allocation to the State of a fraction of the convicted person's property or of certain of his specially designated property.
In the event of conviction for an act classified as a crime, the judge may order the confiscation, for the benefit of the State, subject to the rights of third parties, of the objects and things that served or were intended to serve in the offence, or that are the proceeds thereof, as well as of the gifts or other advantages that served or were intended to serve to reward the perpetrator of the offence.
Any allegation or imputation of a fact that harms the honour or consideration of persons or of the body to which the fact is imputed is defamation. Any insulting expression, term of contempt harming dignity, or invective that contains no imputation of any fact is an insult. The direct publication, or publication by way of reprod…
Text available in Arabic only.
Defamation committed by one of the means set forth in Article 38 against the courts, tribunals, the land, sea or air forces, the constituted bodies, or the public administrations of Morocco shall be punishable by imprisonment of one month to one year and a fine of 1.200 to 100.000 dirhams, or by only one of these two penalties.
The alienation of confiscated property shall be carried out by the Domains Administration in the forms prescribed for the sale of State property. 16 - Article added by Article 3 of the aforementioned Law No. 03-03 relating to the fight against terrorism. - - Property devolved to the State by effect of confiscation remains encumbered, up to the amount of its value, with lawful debts prior to the conviction.
The dissolution of a legal person consists in the prohibition of continuing the corporate activity, even under another name and with other directors, administrators or managers. It entails the liquidation of the legal person's property. It may be pronounced only in the cases provided for by law and by virtue of an express provision of the conviction decision.
In the cases determined by law, the trial court may order that its conviction decision be published in full or in extracts in one or more newspapers that it designates, or be posted in the places that it indicates, all at the expense of the convicted person, without however the publication costs being able to exceed the sum fixe…
Every convicted person must fully undergo the penalties pronounced against him, unless one of the following causes of extinction, exemption or suspension occurs: 1° The death of the convicted person; 2° Amnesty; 3° The repeal of the criminal law; 4° Pardon; 5° Prescription; 6° Suspension of execution of the conviction; - - 7° Conditional release; 8° Transaction where the law expressly provides for it.
The death of the convicted person does not prevent the execution of pecuniary convictions against the property deriving from his estate.
bis: Whoever shall have published allegations, facts or photographs infringing the private life of third parties shall be punished by imprisonment from one month to six months and a fine of 5.000 to 20.000 dirhams or by only one of these two penalties. 180 - The provisions of articles 444-1 and 444-2 were added pursuant to artic…
Except in the case provided for in article 7 for the application of temporary laws, the repeal of the criminal law prevents the execution of the penalty not yet undergone and terminates the execution in progress.
The right of pardon is an attribute of the Sovereign. It is exercised under the conditions fixed by dahir n°1-57-387 of 16 rejeb 1377 (6 février 1958) relating to pardons17. In matters of offences and petty offences, when an application for pardon is made in favour of a detained convicted person, the release of that convicted person may, exceptionally, be ordered by the Minister of Justice until the application for pardon has been ruled upon.
The limitation of the penalty exempts the convicted person from the effects of the conviction under the conditions provided for in articles 688 to 693 of the Code of Criminal Procedure18.