Any public official, any Government agent, any employee or agent of the postal service who opens, diverts or suppresses letters entrusted to the post, or who facilitates the opening, diversion or suppression thereof71, shall be punished by imprisonment from three months to five years and by a fine of 20072 to 1.000 dirhams. 71 -…
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
Where measures contrary to the laws have been concerted, either by a meeting of individuals or bodies vested with some part of public authority, or by deputation or correspondence, the offenders shall be punished by imprisonment of one month to six months. They may moreover be subject to deprivation of one or more of the rights…
Where measures against the execution of the laws or of the Government's orders have been concerted by one of the means set out in the preceding Article, the offenders shall be punished by forced residence for a period not exceeding ten years. Where such measures have been concerted between the civil authorities and military bodi…
In the case where measures concerted between the civil authorities and military bodies or their commanders have had as their object or result - - an attack on the internal security of the State, the instigators shall be punished by death and the other offenders by perpetual reclusion.
All magistrates and public officials who, by deliberation, have resolved to resign with the aim of preventing or suspending either the administration of justice or the functioning of a public service, shall be punished by civil degradation. SECTION II ENCROACHMENT BY ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL AUTHORITIES AND DENIAL OF JUSTICE (Articles 237 to 240)
All magistrates or police officers who: 1° have interfered in the exercise of legislative power, either by issuing regulations containing legislative provisions, or by halting or suspending the execution of one or more laws; 2° have interfered in matters assigned to administrative authorities, either by issuing regulations on such matters, or by prohibiting the execution of the administration's orders, shall be punished by civil degradation.
All governors, pachas, super-caïds, caïds or other administrators who interfere either in the exercise of legislative power by issuing regulations containing legislative provisions, or by halting or suspending the execution of one or more laws, or in the exercise of judicial power by issuing orders or prohibitions to courts or tribunals, shall be punished by civil degradation.
All governors, pachas, super-caïds, caïds or other administrators who, outside the cases provided for by law and despite the protest of the parties or of one of them, have ruled on matters within the jurisdiction of courts or tribunals, shall be punished by imprisonment of one month to two years and a fine of 50 to 500 dirhams. - -
Any magistrate or any public official invested with jurisdictional powers who, under any pretext whatsoever, even that of the silence or obscurity of the law, has denied to render the justice owed to the parties after having been requested to do so, and who has persisted in such denial after warning or injunction from his superi…
Any magistrate or any public official who misappropriates, dissipates, unduly retains or removes public or private funds, effects in lieu thereof, or documents, securities, instruments, movable effects which were in his hands, whether by virtue of or by reason of his functions, shall be punished by reclusion of five years to twe…
Any magistrate or public official who, with intent to harm or fraudulently, destroys or removes the documents, instruments, deeds or movable effects entrusted to him in that capacity or communicated to him by reason of his functions, shall be punished by rigorous imprisonment for five to ten years.
Any magistrate or public official who solicits, receives, demands or orders the collection of that which he knows not to be due, or in excess of what is due, whether to the administration, or to the parties on whose behalf he collects, or to himself, shall be guilty of extortion and punished by imprisonment for two to five years and a fine of 5,000 to 100,000 dirhams. The penalty shall be doubled where the sum exceeds 100,000 dirhams.
Any holder of public authority who orders the collection of direct or indirect contributions other than those provided for by law, as well as any public official who establishes the rolls thereof or carries out the collection thereof, shall be punished by the penalties provided for in the preceding article. The same penalties sh…
Any public official who, whether openly, by simulated act, or through the interposition of a person, takes or receives any interest in the acts, adjudications, enterprises or concessions of which he has, at the time of the act, in whole or in part, the administration or supervision, shall be punished by rigorous imprisonment for…
The provisions of the preceding article shall apply to any public official, for a period of five years from the cessation of his functions, whatever the manner in which such cessation occurred, unless the interest devolves upon him by hereditary succession.
In the case where, by virtue of one of the articles of this section, only a correctional penalty is incurred, the offender may, in addition, be subjected for at least five years and at most ten years to the prohibition of one or more of the rights mentioned in article 40 of this code; he may also be subjected to the prohibition…
Anyone who solicits or agrees to offers or promises, solicits or receives gifts, presents or other advantages, for the purpose of: shall be guilty of corruption and punished by imprisonment for two to five years and a fine of 2,000 to 50,000 dirhams: 1° Being a magistrate, public official or invested with an elective mandate, pe…
Shall be guilty of corruption and punished by imprisonment of one to three years and a fine of 5.000 to 50.000 dirhams, any clerk, employee or agent, salaried or remunerated in any form, who, either directly or through an intermediary, without the knowledge and consent of his employer, either solicited or accepted offers or prom…
Any person who solicits or agrees to offers or promises, solicits or receives gifts, presents or other advantages, for the purpose of obtaining or attempting to obtain decorations, medals, distinctions or rewards, places, functions or offices, or any favours whatsoever granted by the public authority, contracts, enterprises or o…
Whosoever, in order to obtain either the performance or abstention from an act, or one of the favours or advantages provided for in articles 248 to 250, has used acts of violence or threats, promises, offers, gifts or presents, or other advantages, or yielded to solicitations tending to corruption, even if he did not take the in…
In the case where the corruption or trading in influence has as its object the performance of an act classified as a crime by law, the penalty punishing that crime shall be applicable to the perpetrator of the corruption or trading in influence.
When the corruption of a magistrate, a lay assessor or a member of a court has had the effect of causing a criminal penalty 81 - Ibid. - - to be pronounced against an accused, that penalty shall be applicable to the perpetrator of the corruption.
Any judge or administrator who decides by favour for a party or by enmity against that party shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to three years and a fine of 5.000 to 50.000 dirhams82.
No restitution shall ever be made to the corruptor of the things he has delivered or of their value; they must be confiscated and declared acquired by the Treasury by the judgment, except in the case provided for in article 256 – 1 above. Confiscation shall extend to all that is obtained by means of the offences provided for in articles 248, 249 and 250 of this Code, regardless of the person who holds it or who has benefited from it83.
Text available in Arabic only.
The corruptor, within the meaning of article 251 of this law, who denounces a corruption offence to the judicial authorities shall benefit from an absolute excuse where the denunciation took place before giving effect to the request presented to him for that purpose, or if he establishes, in the case where he has given effect to…
Text available in Arabic only.
Any magistrate or public official who requests or orders, or causes to be requested or ordered, the action or employment of the public force against the execution of a law or against the collection of a legally established contribution or against the execution either of an order or warrant of justice or of any other order emanat…
Where the magistrate or public official proves that he acted by order of his hierarchical superiors in a field within their competence, for which he owed them obedience, he shall benefit from an absolute excuse. In that case, the penalty shall be applied only to the superiors who gave the order.
If the orders or requisitions have been the direct cause of an act classified as a crime by law, the penalty punishing that crime shall be applicable to the offender for abuse of authority.
Any commander, officer or non-commissioned officer of the public force who, after having been lawfully requisitioned by the civil authority, has refused or abstained from causing the force placed under his orders to act shall be punished with imprisonment of one to six months. Section VI Of the exercise of public authority unlawfully anticipated or prolonged - - (Articles 261 and 262)
Any magistrate or any public official bound by a professional oath who, except in case of necessity, begins to exercise his functions without having taken the oath shall be punished with a fine of 20085 to 500 dirhams.
bis. Without prejudice to more serious criminal provisions, any person subject, by reason of his functions or an elective mandate, to the obligation to declare assets who has not proceeded, within the legal time limits, with that declaration after cessation of his functions or expiry of his mandate, or whose declaration is not c…
Shall be punished with imprisonment of one month to one year and a fine of 250 to 5.000 dirhams, whosoever, with the intention of impairing their honour, their delicacy or the respect due to their authority, outrages in the exercise of their functions or on the occasion of that exercise, a magistrate, a public official, a comman…
The act by a person of denouncing to the public authorities an offence which he knows did not exist, or of producing false evidence relating to an imaginary offence, or of declaring before the judicial authority that he is the author of an offence which he neither committed nor participated in committing, shall be considered as an outrage and punished as such. - -
Outrage against constituted bodies is punished in accordance with the provisions of article 263, paragraphs 1 and 3.
Are punished with the penalties laid down in paragraphs 1 and 3 of article 263: 1° Public acts, words or writings which, so long as a case has not been irrevocably decided, have as their object to exert pressure on the decisions of magistrates; 2° Public acts, words or writings tending to discredit judicial decisions and likely to impair the authority of justice or its independence.
591 Is punished with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 dirhams or one of these two penalties only, anyone who attacks the Islamic religion, the monarchical regime or incites attacks on the territorial integrity of the Kingdom. The penalty incurred is increased to two to five years' impriso…
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.
Anyone who destroys, damages or defiles graves by any means whatsoever is punished with imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine of 20092 to 500 dirhams.
Anyone who, in cemeteries or other burial places, commits an act impairing the respect due to the dead is punished with imprisonment from one to three months and a fine of 20093 to 250 dirhams.
Anyone who violates a grave, or clandestinely buries or exhumes a corpse94, is punished with imprisonment from three months to two years and a fine of 20095 to 500 dirhams.
Anyone who defiles or mutilates a corpse or commits on a corpse any act of brutality or obscenity is punished with imprisonment from two to five years and a fine of 20096 to 500 dirhams.
Anyone who conceals or causes a corpse to disappear is punished with imprisonment from six months to three years and a fine of 20097 to 250 dirhams. 92 - cf. supra note corresponding to article 111. 93 - Ibid. 94 - See dahir No. 986-68 of 19 chaabane 1389 (31 October 1969) relating to burials, exhumations and transport of bodies…
Is punished with imprisonment from six months to three years anyone who knowingly breaks, or attempts to break, seals affixed by order of the public authority. Where the breaking of seals, or the attempt, was committed either by the custodian, or with violence against persons, or for the purpose of removing or destroying evidence or exhibits99 in a criminal proceeding, the imprisonment is from two to five years.
Any theft committed with breaking of seals is punished as theft committed with breaking and entering under the conditions provided for in article 510.