Penal Code

1-59-4131962Dahir n° 1-59-413 · éd. arabe consolidée au 22-08-2024 (incl. loi 43-22) · version française 2018714 articlesSource: Bulletin Officiel (SGG)

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

Article 406

Anyone who participates in a brawl, rebellion or seditious assembly in the course of which blows are struck or wounds inflicted is punished by imprisonment for three months to two years, unless he incurs a more severe penalty as the perpetrator of that violence. The leaders, perpetrators, instigators and provocateurs of the brawl, rebellion or seditious assembly are punished as if they had personally committed the said violence.

Article 407

154 Anyone who knowingly assists a person in the acts that prepare or facilitate his suicide, or supplies the weapons, poison or instruments intended for suicide, knowing that they are to be used for that purpose, is punished, if the suicide is carried out, by imprisonment for one to five years. The penalty is doubled where the…

Article 408

Anyone who voluntarily wounds or strikes a child aged under fifteen years or voluntarily deprives him of food or care to the point of compromising his health, or voluntarily commits on that child any other violence or assault, to the exclusion of minor violence, is punished by imprisonment for one to three years155. 154 - The provisions of article 407 above were supplemented pursuant to article 4 of Law No. 103-13, referred to above. - -

Article 409

Where the blows, wounds, violence, assault or deprivation referred to in the preceding article have resulted in illness, immobilisation or incapacity for work exceeding twenty days, or where there has been premeditation, ambush or use of a weapon, the penalty is imprisonment for two to five years. The offender may also be subjec…

Article 410

Where the blows, wounds, violence, assault or deprivation referred to in article 408 have resulted in mutilation, amputation, deprivation of the use of a limb, blindness, loss of an eye or other permanent infirmities, the penalty is reclusion for ten to twenty years. If death has resulted therefrom without intent to cause it, th…

Article 411

Where the offender is an ascendant or any other person having authority over the child or having custody of him, he is punished: 1° In the case provided for in article 408, by imprisonment for two to five years; 2° In the case provided for in article 409, by double the imprisonment penalty laid down in that article. 155 - Articl…

Article 412

Whoever is guilty of the crime of castration is punished with perpetual reclusion. If death has resulted therefrom, the guilty person is punished with death.

Article 413

Whoever causes to another an illness or personal incapacity for work by administering to him or her, in any manner whatsoever, knowingly but without intent to cause death, substances harmful to health is punished with imprisonment from one month to three years and a fine of 200156 to 500 dirhams. Where an illness or personal inc…

Article 414

Where the misdemeanours and crimes specified in the preceding article have been committed by an ascendant, descendant, spouse or heir of the victim or a person having authority over the victim, or having custody of the victim, the penalty is: 1° In the case provided for in paragraph 1 of article 413, imprisonment from two to fiv…

Article 415

Where the offences defined in article 413 have been committed in the commercial cycle, dahir No. 1-59-380 of 26 Rebia II 1379 (29 October 1959) on the repression of crimes against the health of the Nation157 shall apply.

Article 416

Murder, wounds and blows are excusable if they have been provoked by serious blows or violence against persons.

Article 417

Murder, wounds and blows are excusable if they have been committed while repelling, during the day, the scaling or breaking of fences, walls or the entrance of an inhabited house or apartment or of their outbuildings. If they have been committed during the night, the provisions of article 125, paragraph 1, shall apply.

Article 418

Murder, wounds and blows are excusable if they are committed by one of the spouses on the person of the other, as well as on the accomplice, at the moment when he surprises them in flagrante delicto of adultery158.

Article 419

The crime of castration is excusable if it was immediately provoked by an indecent assault committed with violence. 157 - Bulletin Officiel no. 2453 of 30 October 1959), p. 1818. 158 - Article amended by article one of law no. 24-03 amending and supplementing the Penal Code, aforementioned. - -

Article 420

Wounds inflicted or blows struck without intent to cause death, even if they have caused it, are excusable when they have been committed by a head of family who surprises in his home illicit sexual intercourse, whether the blows were struck upon one or the other of the guilty parties.

Article 421

Wounds and blows are excusable when they are committed on the person of an adult caught in the act of indecent assault or attempted indecent assault, committed with or without violence, on a child under eighteen years of age. The same acts are excusable when they are committed on the person of an adult caught in the act of rape or attempted rape159.

Article 422

Parricide is never excusable.

Article 423

Where the ground for excuse is proven, the penalty is reduced: 1° To imprisonment from one to five years if it is a crime legally punished with death or perpetual reclusion; 2° To imprisonment from six months to two years if it is any other crime; 3° To imprisonment from one to three months if it is a misdemeanour.

Article 424

In the cases provided for in items 1° and 2° of the preceding article, the guilty person may, in addition, be prohibited from residing for at least five years and at most ten years. 159 - Article amended and supplemented by article three of law no. 24-03 amending and supplementing the Penal Code, aforementioned. - - SECTION II THREATS AND FAILURE TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE (Articles 425 to 431)

Article 425

Whoever, by anonymous or signed writing, image, symbol or emblem, threatens a crime against persons or property, is punished with imprisonment from one to three years and a fine of 200160 to 500 dirhams.

Article 426

If the threat provided for in the preceding article was made with an order to deposit a sum of money in a designated place or to fulfil any other condition, the penalty is imprisonment from two to five years and a fine of 250 to 1.000 dirhams.

Article 427

If the threat provided for in article 425, made with an order or subject to a condition, was verbal, the penalty is imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of 200161 to 250 dirhams.

Article 428

In the cases provided for in the three preceding articles, the guilty persons may, in addition, be subject for at least five years and at most ten years to the prohibition of one or more of the rights mentioned in article 40 and to prohibition of residence.

Article 429

1163 The penalty provided for in Articles 425, 426, 427 and 429 of this Code shall be doubled where the perpetrator of the offence is a spouse who committed it against his or her spouse, a divorced spouse, a fiancé, an ascendant, a descendant, a brother, a kafil, a guardian or a person having authority over the victim or having…

Article 429-1

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Article 430

Whoever, being able, without risk to himself or to third parties, to prevent by his immediate action either an act classified as a crime or a misdemeanour against the bodily integrity of a person, voluntarily abstains from doing so, is punished with imprisonment from three months to five years and a fine of 200164 to 1.000 dirhams or with one of these two penalties only.

Article 431

Whosoever voluntarily abstains from providing to a person in peril the assistance that, without risk to himself or to third parties, he could have provided, either by his personal action or by procuring rescue, shall be punished by imprisonment from three to two years and a fine of 2.000 to 10.000 dirhams. The penalty shall be d…

Article 431-1

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Article 431-2

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Article 431-3

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Article 431-4

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Article 431-5

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Article 432

Whosoever, through clumsiness, imprudence, inattention, negligence or failure to observe regulations, involuntarily commits homicide or is involuntarily the cause thereof shall be punished by imprisonment from three months to five years and a fine of 250 to 1.000 dirhams.

Article 433

Whosoever, through clumsiness, imprudence, inattention, negligence or failure to observe regulations, involuntarily causes injuries, blows or illnesses resulting in an incapacity for personal work of more than six days shall be punished by imprisonment from one month to two years and a fine of 200168 to 500 dirhams or by one of these two penalties only.

Article 434

The penalties provided for in the two preceding articles shall be doubled where the perpetrator of the offence acted in a state of intoxication, or attempted, either by fleeing, or by altering the state of the premises, or by any other means, to escape the criminal or civil liability that he could incur.

Article 435

Whosoever in the cases provided for in Articles 607 and 608, 5°, involuntarily causes a fire that results in the death of one or more persons or causes them injuries shall be guilty of involuntary homicide or injuries and punished as such in application of the three preceding articles. 168 - cf. supra note corresponding to Artic…

Article 436

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Article 436-1

If the abduction or confinement is committed by a spouse, a divorced spouse, a fiance(e), an ascendant, a descendant, a brother, a 169 - Section heading amended and supplemented by article one of the dahir enacting law no. 1-74-232 of 28 rebia II 1394 (21 May 1974) amending and supplementing section IV of chapter VII and chapter…

Article 437

If the abduction, arrest, detention or sequestration has as its purpose to procure hostages for the perpetrators, either to prepare or facilitate the commission of a crime or an offence, or to facilitate the escape or ensure the impunity of the perpetrators of a crime or an offence, the penalty shall be perpetual reclusion. The…

Article 438

If the person abducted, arrested, detained or sequestered has been subjected to corporal torture, the perpetrators shall, in all cases provided for in the preceding articles, be punished by death.

Article 439

The penalties prescribed in Articles 436, 437 and 438 shall apply, according to the procedures provided for in the said articles, to those who knowingly provide either a place for detaining or sequestering the victims, or a means of transport used for their movements. 173 - Article amended and supplemented by Article 1 of the aforementioned dahir enacting Law No. 1-74-232. 174 - Ibid. 175 - Ibid. - -

Article 440

Any guilty person who spontaneously causes the detention or sequestration to cease shall benefit from a mitigating excuse within the meaning of Article 143 of this Code, according to the following procedures: 1° in the cases provided for in Articles 437 and 439, if the person arrested, abducted, detained or sequestered as a host…

Article 441

Whosoever, by fraud or by means of threats or violence against persons or property, enters or attempts to enter the home of another shall be punished by imprisonment from one to six months and a fine of 200177 to 250 dirhams. If the violation of the home was committed either at night, or by means of scaling or breaking in, or by…

Article 442

Any allegation or imputation of a fact that harms the honour or consideration of the persons or body to which the fact is imputed is defamation.

Article 443

Any insulting expression, term of contempt or invective that contains no imputation of any fact is an insult.

Article 444

Any defamation or public insult is punished in accordance with dahir No. 1-58-378 of 3 Joumada I 1378 (15 November 1958) forming the Press Code179. 178 - Ibid. 179 - See the provisions of Section III of Chapter IV of the Press Code as amended and supplemented by Law No. 77-00 promulgated by dahir No. 1-02-207 of 25 Rejeb 1423 (3 October 2002), aforementioned, and which read as follows:

Article 444-1

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Article 444-2

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Article 445

Whoever, by any means whatsoever, makes a calumnious denunciation against one or more individuals to officers of justice or of administrative or judicial police, or to authorities having the power to follow up on it or to refer the matter to the competent authority, or else to the hierarchical superiors or employers of the perso…

Article 446

Physicians, surgeons or health officers, as well as pharmacists, midwives or any other persons who are depositaries, by status or profession or by permanent or temporary functions, of secrets entrusted to them, who, except in the case where the law obliges or authorizes them to act as denouncers, have revealed these secrets, are…