Moroccan Teen Self-Immolates After Her Rapists Released
The eight men who raped Khadija al-Swaida reportedly threatened to release pictures of the rape they had taken unless she dropped the charges.
A teenage Moroccan girl set herself on fire after her rapists were released from prison.
She was pregnant when she died.
“Eight young men abducted the girl,” according to the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) “and then took turns to rape her.”
The attack took place last year when Khadija al-Swaidi, from Ben Guerir, 43 miles north of Marrakesh, was 16.
Despite the police arresting seven suspects, shortly followed by an eighth, a prosecutor decided to grant the suspects a provisional release.
They then threatened her saying they would “publish pictures of the rape which they had taken with their mobile phones unless she dropped the complaint against them” according to the head of the AMDH Omar Arbib.
Distraught, she set herself on fire and died later from the burns while in hospital.
In 2011, Morocco adopted a new constitution enshrining gender equality into law. In 2014, the country repealed a law that allowed rapists to escape justice as long as they married their victim.
Morocco launched a probe into her death and re-arrested six of the suspects.
Source: Moroccan Teen Self-Immolates After Her Rapists Released
