HIBAPRESS
The annual report of the Public Prosecutor's Office on “The Functioning of the Public Prosecution and the Implementation of Criminal Policy for the Year 2024” issued a number of recommendations in which it called, in particular, for strengthening and developing human, logistical, and technical resources, as well as for the adoption of the draft penal code in a new formulation that responds to social and economic developments.
At the level of human resources, the report emphasized that "the data recorded during 2024 highlighted the urgent need to strengthen human and logistical resources in the courts, foremost of which is increasing the number of public prosecution judges and filling the deficit estimated at about 800 judges." It explained that "the relative increase achieved during this year remains insufficient in the face of the growing volume of tasks, especially in light of the recent legislative amendments, and after the adoption of the alternative penalties law, and in the near future, the provisions of Law No. 03.23 amending and supplementing the Criminal Procedure Code will be adopted after the completion of the legislative procedure." It also highlighted that it remains necessary to enable public prosecutions with a sufficient number of cadres and employees, with priority given to employing social workers due to their new roles in implementing alternative penalties, as well as providing specialized employees in the statistical and informational fields. The same source added that the outcome also confirms the need to strengthen the primary courts with a sufficient number of judges for the implementation of penalties and to enable them to specialize in order to keep pace with legislative developments, in addition to supporting the Courts of Appeal with consultants, given the large concentration of pre-trial detainees in them, in a way that ensures the optimal management of their cases, indicating that this is not separate from increasing the human and material capabilities of the judicial police, while enabling it with advanced legal and logistical mechanisms that allow improving the level of investigations and addressing modern forms of crime. At the level of logistical and technical resources, the data for the year 2024 revealed the urgent need to continue developing the infrastructure and working mechanisms in a way that enhances the efficiency of the public prosecutions and the quality of their services, and that is through updating the information systems associated with their work, especially the "SAJ2" system to include all stages of procedures and judicial decisions, including cases of juveniles, preliminary investigation, coercive enforcement, and administrative correspondence. The matter also requires preparing the courts in a way that ensures appropriate reception spaces for complainants and users, and providing information connectivity with all courts, as well as with administrations and strategic partners, foremost of whom is the judicial police, in a way that allows the completion of investigations and the electronic and secure referral of minutes. In the same context, the demand for developing smart dashboards emerges that enable the real-time tracking of the status of pre-trial detention, minutes, and complaints, and allow the automatic review of search telegrams. The matter also calls for preparing public hospitals to provide special places for the hospitalization of prisoners and mobilizing the necessary human and logistical capabilities to secure their guard, while strengthening specialized hospital institutions in the fields of psychiatry and mental health to ensure the deposit of prisoners sentenced with criminal irresponsibility within reasonable deadlines and avoiding their stay in prisons. As for the implementation of criminal policy, the data for the year 2024 revealed the urgent need to expedite the adoption of the draft penal code in a new formulation that responds to social and economic developments, and overcomes the difficulties that judicial practice has revealed under the current text. It also remains necessary to adopt the legal texts that facilitate the electronic notification of the parties to the public lawsuit, while highlighting the practical procedures and their resulting effects, and accelerating the issuance of the texts framing the reform of legal and judicial professions and unifying their disciplinary procedures. In addition to that, the adoption of the remote electronic apostille system, which allows the authentication of public documents through a secure digital platform, and the development of the texts regulating child protection centers in a way that ensures appropriate reception and shelter structures, and providing the necessary regulatory framework to enable the public prosecutions to activate the provisions of Chapter Eight of the Decree of May 21, 1974 regarding the deposit of drug addicts in treatment institutions. The need also emerges to establish institutional structures to implement protection measures prescribed for the benefit of victims of human trafficking and women and children victims of crimes, and to develop a clear legal framework for dealing with cryptocurrencies that defines illegal practices and methods of seizure and confiscation. The outcome also confirms the need to increase the number of doctors specializing in forensic medicine in a way that ensures the equitable distribution to cover the existing deficit, as well as amending the legal framework to expand the circle of beneficiaries of the right to food to include those presented before the public prosecutions in the case of awaiting summons or immediate referral to the session while they are in custody. The report concluded by emphasizing that the Public Prosecutor's Office renews its firm commitment to defending the public right, safeguarding public order, and adhering to the controls of the rule of law and the principles of justice and equity that His Majesty King Mohammed VI has deemed a path for building a state of law and order based on the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens, individuals and groups, within a framework of the correlation between rights and duties, and also affirms its renewed determination to continue to improve the performance of the public prosecutions, and to strengthen its full involvement in the justice reform projects, making it an effective tool for protecting rights and freedoms and consolidating confidence in the judiciary.
