Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Penal Code 1962, which criminalises ‘lewd or unnatural acts’. This provision carries a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment and a fine. Both men and women are criminalised under this law.

In 1956, Morocco officially gained independence from France, which had long since decriminalised same-sex sexual activity. As such the criminalising law is of local origin, having been adopted in the 1962 Penal Code.

There is substantial evidence of the law being enforced in recent years, with LGBT people being frequently subject to arrest. Reports suggest that hundreds of prosecutions under the law have taken place in recent years. There have been consistent reports of discrimination and violence being committed against LGBT people in recent years, including assault, harassment, and societal marginalisation.

2019

A Country of Origin Information report from the Danish Immigration Service, published in September, indicates that the number of prosecutions could be much higher than publicly available figures. It suggested that human rights groups would only be aware of cases that had been reported in the media, and most who found themselves accused would do everything possible to avoid media attention.

The Office of the Prosecutor General’s statistics for 2019 suggested that 122 people were prosecuted for same-sex sexual activity.

2018 

According to a report from the Office of the Public Prosecutor, there were 147 ‘registered cases’ of ‘homosexuality’ and 170 charged in 2018. In 2017, the official number of prosecutions was 197.

2017 

The report by the Danish Immigration Service states that according to the National Human Rights Council, there had been “four to five” cases involving LGBT people at courts of first instance in 2015. Legal experts quoted in the report said that there had been ten and twenty court cases in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

2016

In March, one man was found guilty under article 489 after a group of four men broke into a private home, assaulted him and another man and dragged them out naked onto the street. There they were beaten and filmed by an angry mob. Two of the attackers were also found guilty of assault.

In May, two men were arrested and charged under article 489 after being found by police in a parked car on the outskirts of the town of Guelmim. The men were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.

In November, two teenage girls, 16-year-old Sanaa and 17-year-old Hajar, went to trial on homosexuality charges after they were caught kissing and reported to police in Marrakesh.

2015

In June, two men were sentenced for violating article 489 after posing for a photo together outside a mosque. Reports suggest the incident was linked to another case that took place a day prior, in which two topless French activists were arrested and deported after kissing in the same spot.

2014

A report from Human Rights Watch stated that in July, a Moroccan appeals court upheld the convictions of six men charged with homosexual acts in April. Four of those individuals were convicted under article 489 and two were imprisoned, with the rest reportedly being given suspended sentences. The report claims that all six men may have been banished from the region.

In December, two men were convicted under article 489 and 483 (‘public indecency’) after a brief trial based upon ‘confessions’ which the defendants repudiated. Their sentences were reduced from three years’ imprisonment to six months on appeal.

2013

One report suggests that as many as 5,000 individuals may have been arrested under Morocco’s criminalising laws since the country gained independence in 1956.

2011

A report of the Associated Press includes Ministry of Justice statistics indicating “81 trials for homosexuality in 2011″.