Whoever, being entrusted with the custody of a child, fails to produce the child to the persons entitled to claim him is punished by imprisonment of one month to one year.
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
When a decision has been handed down on the custody of a minor by a court decision, enforceable provisionally or definitively, the father, the mother or any person who does not present this minor to those entitled to claim him, or who, even without fraud or violence, removes or diverts him or causes him to be removed or diverted…
Except in the case where the act constitutes an act punishable as complicity, whosoever knowingly conceals or removes from search a minor who has been kidnapped or abducted or who evades the authority to which he is legally subject is punished by imprisonment from one to five years and a fine of 200210 to 500 dirhams or by one of these two penalties only. SECTION V OF FAMILY ABANDONMENT 211 (Articles 479 to 482)
Shall be punished by imprisonment of one month to one year and a fine of 200 to 2.000 dirhams or by only one of these two penalties: 1° The father or mother of the family who abandons, without serious reason, for more than two months, the family residence and evades all or part of the moral and material obligations resulting fro…
Any person who, in disregard of a final court decision or of a provisionally enforceable decision, wilfully fails to pay, at the fixed due date, maintenance to his spouse, ascendants or descendants, shall be punished by the same penalty. In the event of recidivism, the penalty of imprisonment shall always be imposed. The maintenance fixed by the judge must be provided at the residence of the beneficiary, unless otherwise decided212.
Text available in Arabic only.
In addition to the courts normally competent, the court of the residence of the abandoned person or of the beneficiary of the pension or of the person expelled from the marital home may hear prosecutions brought under the provisions of articles 479, 480 and 480-1. Prosecutions may only be brought on complaint of the person expel…
Text available in Arabic only.
The father and mother who seriously compromise, by ill-treatment, by pernicious examples of drunkenness or notorious misconduct, by lack of care or by lack of necessary guidance, either the health, safety or morality of their children or of one or more of them, shall be punished by imprisonment of one month to one year and a fin…
Whoever, by his state of deliberate nudity or by the obscenity of his gestures or acts, commits a public outrage against modesty is punished by imprisonment of one month to two years and a fine of 200217 to 500 dirhams. The outrage is considered public as soon as the act constituting it has been committed in the presence of one or more involuntary witnesses or minors under eighteen years of age, or in a place accessible to public view.
Any indecent assault consummated or attempted without violence on the person of a minor under eighteen years of age, an incapacitated person, a disabled person or a person known for weak mental capacities, of either sex218, is punished by imprisonment of two to five years.
Any indecent assault consummated or attempted with violence against persons of either sex is punished by penal imprisonment of five to ten years. However, if the crime was committed on the person of a child under eighteen years of age, an incapacitated person, a disabled person, or on a person known for weak mental capacities, t…
Rape is the act by which a man has sexual relations with a woman against her will. It is punished by penal imprisonment of five to ten years. However, if the rape was committed on the person of a minor under eighteen years of age, an incapacitated person, a disabled person, a person known for weak mental faculties, or a pregnant woman, the penalty is penal imprisonment of ten to twenty years220.
If the offenders are ascendants of the person on whom the assault was committed, if they are among those who have authority over her, if they are her guardians or paid servants, or the paid servants of the persons designated above, if they are public officials or ministers of religion, or if the offender, whoever he may be, was…
In the case provided for in Articles 484 to 487, if defloration followed, the penalty is: Penal imprisonment of five to ten years, in the case provided for in Article 484; Penal imprisonment of ten to twenty years, in the case provided for in Article 485, paragraph 1; 220 - Ibid. - - Penal imprisonment of twenty to thirty years,…
Whoever commits an indecent or unnatural act with an individual of the same sex is punished by imprisonment of six months to three years and a fine of 200221 to 1.000 dirhams, unless the act constitutes a more serious offence.
All persons of different sex who, not being bound by the bonds of marriage, have sexual relations with each other are punished by imprisonment of one month to one year.
Any married person convicted of adultery is punished by imprisonment of one to two years. Prosecution is brought only on complaint of the offended spouse. However, when one of the spouses is absent from the territory of the Kingdom, the other spouse who, to public knowledge, maintains adulterous relations may be prosecuted ex officio on the initiative of the public prosecutor's office222.
The withdrawal of the complaint by the offended spouse terminates the proceedings brought against his or her spouse for adultery. Withdrawal occurring after a conviction has become final stops the effects of that conviction with respect to the convicted spouse. The withdrawal of the complaint never benefits the person who is an accomplice of the adulterous spouse.
Proof of the offences punished by Articles 490 and 491 is established either by a report of flagrant offence drawn up by a 221 - cf. above note corresponding to Article 111. 222 - Article amended by Article 1 of Law No. 24-03 amending and supplementing the Penal Code, cited above. - - officer of judicial police, or by confession recorded in letters or documents emanating from the accused or by judicial confession.
Whoever, by fraud, violence or threats, abducts a married woman, entices her away, moves her, or causes her to be enticed away or moved from the place where she was placed by those in authority or to whose direction she was subjected or entrusted is punished by imprisonment of one to five years and a fine of 200223 to 1.000 dirhams. Attempt of the offence is punishable as the offence itself.
Whoever knowingly conceals or removes from search a married woman who has been abducted or enticed away is punished by imprisonment of one to five years and a fine of 200224 to 1.000 dirhams.
The same penalty shall be imposed on anyone who knowingly conceals or removes from investigation a married woman who evades the authority to which she is legally subject. SECTION VII SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND CORRUPTION OF YOUTH 225 (Articles 497 to 504)
Anyone who incites, encourages or facilitates the debauchery or prostitution of minors under eighteen years of age shall be punished by imprisonment of two to ten years and a fine of twenty thousand to two hundred thousand dirhams226. 223 - cf. supra note corresponding to article 111. 224 - Ibid. 225 - The title of section VII o…
Anyone who knowingly: 1) in any manner, aids, assists or protects the prostitution of others or solicitation for the purpose of prostitution; 2) in any form, knowingly, receives a share of the proceeds of the prostitution or debauchery of others or receives subsidies from a person habitually engaging in prostitution or debaucher…
The penalties provided for in the preceding article shall be increased to imprisonment of two to ten years and a fine of ten thousand to two million dirhams where: 1) the offence was committed against a minor under eighteen years of age; 2) the offence was committed against a person in a difficult situation due to his or her age…
Text available in Arabic only.
Text available in Arabic only.
The penalties provided for in articles 497 to 499 shall be incurred even where some of the acts constituting the elements of the offence were committed outside the Kingdom.
Anyone who, himself or herself or through a third party, has committed any of the following acts shall be punished by imprisonment of four years to ten years and a fine of five thousand to two million dirhams: 1) possesses, manages, operates, directs, finances or participates in the financing of premises or an establishment habi…
Text available in Arabic only.
Anyone who, by gestures, words, writings or by any other means, publicly solicits persons of either sex for the purpose of inducing them to debauchery shall be punished by imprisonment of one month to one year and a fine of twenty thousand to two hundred thousand dirhams234.
2 Anyone who provokes, incites or facilitates the exploitation of children under eighteen years of age in pornography by any representation, by any means whatsoever, of a real, simulated or perceived sexual act or any representation of a child's sexual organs for purposes of a sexual nature shall be punished by imprisonment of o…
Text available in Arabic only.
Text available in Arabic only.
Text available in Arabic only.
Text available in Arabic only.
Text available in Arabic only.
In all cases, the perpetrators of offences provided for in this Section may, in addition, be subject for at least five years and not more than ten years to deprivation of one or more of the rights mentioned in article 40 and to prohibition of residence. Attempt of these offences shall be punished by the same penalties as the com…
Anyone who fraudulently removes property belonging to another shall be guilty of theft and punished by imprisonment of one to five years and a fine of 200241 to 500 dirhams.
By derogation from the provisions of the preceding article, the fraudulent removal of property of low value belonging to another shall be classified as petty theft and punished by imprisonment of one month to two years and a fine of 200242 to 250 dirhams. 241 - cf. supra note corresponding to article 111. 242 - Ibid. - - Petty t…
Individuals guilty of theft shall be punished by perpetual reclusion if the thieves or one of them were carrying, openly or concealed, a weapon within the meaning of article 303, even if the theft was committed by a single person and in the absence of any other aggravating circumstance. The same penalty shall apply if the guilty…
Individuals guilty of theft committed on public roads or in vehicles used for transporting passengers, mail or baggage, or within the precincts of railways, stations, ports, airports, landing or boarding quays, where the theft was committed with at least one of the circumstances referred to in the following article, shall be punished by reclusion of twenty to thirty years.
Individuals guilty of theft committed with at least two of the following circumstances shall be punished by reclusion of ten to twenty years: If the theft was committed with violence, or threats of violence, or illegal wearing of uniform, or usurpation of a function of authority; If the theft was committed at night; If the theft…
Individuals guilty of theft committed with only one of the following circumstances shall be punished by reclusion of five to ten years: If the theft was committed with violence, or threats of violence, or illegal wearing of uniform, or usurpation of a function of authority; If the theft was committed at night; If the theft was c…
Any building, dwelling, lodge, tent, cabin, even mobile, which, even if not currently inhabited, is intended for habitation, and everything dependent thereon such as courtyards, farmyards, barns, stables, buildings enclosed therein, whatever their use and even if they have a particular enclosure within the enclosure or general precinct, shall be deemed an inhabited house.
Forcing or attempting to force any system of closure, either by breaking or damaging it, or in any other manner, so as to allow a person to enter - - a closed place, or to seize an item contained in a closed place or in a closed piece of furniture or receptacle, shall be characterized as breaking.
Any entry into houses, buildings, courtyards, farmyards, any edifices, gardens, parks and enclosures, carried out over walls, doors, roofs or any other fence, shall be characterized as climbing.
The following shall be classified as false keys: all picklocks, imitated, counterfeit or altered keys, or keys that were not intended by the owner or lessee for any locks whatsoever to which the offender used them. The genuine key improperly retained by the offender shall also be considered a false key.
Whoever counterfeits or alters keys shall be punished by imprisonment from three months to two years and by a fine of 200243 to 500 dirhams. If the offender is a locksmith by profession, the imprisonment shall be from two to five years and the fine from 250 to 500 dirhams, unless the act constitutes an act of complicity in a more serious offence.