Mohammed VI pardons 685 convicted persons and 4,831 linked to cannabis cultivation
The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has granted new pardons, as is traditional under his reign, which began in 1999, on the occasion of various national celebrations.
This time, on the occasion of the 71st anniversary of the King and People's Revolution, the Alaouite monarch granted pardon to 685 people, some of them detainees and others at liberty, sentenced by the various Moroccan courts, according to the Ministry of Justice in an official communiqué.
The celebration of the King and People's Revolution, which is commemorated on 20 August, commemorates the exile of King Mohammed V and the struggle for Moroccan independence.
Of the 685 people concerned, the beneficiaries of the royal pardon who are in detention are 548 and those who are at liberty are 137 people, the prison categories being divided as follows:
- Pardon on the remainder of the prison sentence or imprisonment for the benefit of 15 detainees.
- Reduction of prison or prison sentence for the benefit of 529 detainees.
- Commutation of life imprisonment to a limited term for four detainees.
- Pardon of prison sentence or its remainder for the benefit of 26 persons.
- Pardon of prison sentence with continuation of fine for the benefit of 8 persons.
- Pardon of a fine for the benefit of 98 persons.
- Pardon of prison sentence and fine for the benefit of 4 persons.
- Pardon of the fine and the remainder of the prison sentence for the benefit of one person.
Unpublished pardons related to cannabis cultivation
On this occasion, King Mohammed VI also granted his pardon to 4,831 people convicted, prosecuted or wanted in cases related to cannabis cultivation, who meet the conditions required to benefit from the royal pardon.
The new initiative of the Alawi monarch will allow the beneficiaries of this pardon to be integrated into the new strategy, in which the provinces concerned are committed, following the creation of the National Agency for the Regulation of Cannabis Activities (NARCA) and the structuring impact of its activity at the economic and social level through the industrialisation, processing and export of cannabis and the import of its products for medical, pharmaceutical and industrial purposes, as well as its contribution to the development of alternative crops and non-agricultural activities, as reported by the official Moroccan news agency MAP.
These people linked to cannabis cultivation were expecting an amnesty following the regularisation of the activity of cannabis cultivation for industrial and medicinal purposes. This measure has to do with ‘human aspects’ and will also allow the beneficiaries to be integrated into the new strategy related to the regularisation of cannabis cultivation for medicinal and industrial purposes, according to the Moroccan Ministry of Justice itself.
In June 2021, the Moroccan Parliament passed a law that regulates for the first time the therapeutic and industrial uses of the cannabis plant, but punishes its ‘recreational’ use. In March 2022, the government gave shape to this regularisation with the approval of a decree that determines cultivation in the three northern provinces.
The aim of the Executive with the legalisation of cannabis cultivation, which exclusively affects the three Rifian provinces of Al Hoceima, Chaouen and Taounat, is to improve the standard of living of some 60,000 humble families who make their living from cannabis and who are generally owners of small farms, according to official data from 2021.
With legalisation came the creation of NARCA, the body that controls all phases of cannabis activity from cultivation to trade and export.
NARCA granted some 3,000 licences for the cultivation, trade, processing and export of cannabis in 2024, compared to only 700 in 2023, the year in which the first legal harvest of the plant took place. Most of these licences, some 2,800, were granted to growers.