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Defense lawyer Bazaid Lahmad of El-Ayoun summed it up this way:
Judges allow the defendants and their lawyers to have their say, to
make their arguments. But when it comes to deciding on the verdict, it
is the procès verbal [the defendant’s statement as recorded by the
police, the “PV”] that prevails. The written verdict always gives
credence to the police PV, even when the court acknowledges that the
defendant denied its contents before the investigating judge. 68
Under Morocco’s Code of Criminal Procedure, when the defendant stands charged
with offenses that carry penalties of less than five years in prison (misdemeanors
and infractions), the court is to deem a statement prepared by the judicial police as
trustworthy unless the defendant can demonstrate it is not. 69 Thus, the burden of
proof to exclude from evidence a statement prepared by the police rests on the
defendant. This contrasts to the rules of evidence when the charges involve crimes –
a more serious category of offense – in which case the code considers a statement
made to the police merely as one piece of evidence among others, and there is no
presumption as to its truthfulness. In practice, the evidence rule for misdemeanors
and infractions makes it easy for the public prosecution and the investigating judge
to take the statements prepared by the police and to incorporate them into their own
reports with few if any modifications. Trial judges frequently – and contrary to what
Moroccan authorities claim70 – treat police statements as valid evidence without
questioning the police agents who prepared them. The defense can ask the court to
summon the police agents who prepared the statement to answer questions, but
judges have and use the discretion not to do so.
68 Human Rights Watch interview with Bazaid Lahmad, El-Ayoun, November 6, 2007.
69 Article 290 of the Criminal Procedure Code states, “The records and reports prepared by officers of the Judicial Police in
regard to determining misdemeanors and infractions are to be deemed trustworthy unless the contrary is proven in
accordance with the rules of evidence.”
70 Morocco’s third periodic report to the U.N. Committee against Torture, U.N. Document CAT/C/66/Add.1 (May 21, 2003),
www.arabhumanrights.org/publications/countries/morocco/cat/cat-c-66-add-1-03e.pdf (accessed September 10, 2008),
paras. 137 and 167 at pp. 28-29: “Although the lawgiver considers the report prepared by the officers of the judicial police
recording crimes and minor offences to be an authentic instrument admissible as prima facie evidence, he nevertheless
makes acceptance of its legal validity subject to strict compliance with the form established by the law …. In all cases,
whether the reports have value as evidence or simply provide information, judicial decisions are handed down by the judge in
accordance with his personal conviction. As a result, he will not hesitate to dismiss reports which do not comply with the legal
formalities or which may contain information obtained by illegal means. Such a report not only loses any value as evidence
but its author may be liable to penalties if he is guilty of any abuse.”
Human Rights in Western Sahara and Tindouf 42