Prisoners pardoned as princess is born
Around 33,000 Moroccan prisoners have been pardoned to celebrate the birth of a princess, the second child of King Mohamed VI.
Almost 9,000 prisoners will be released and some 24,000 will have their sentences reduced, the Ministry of Justice said on Friday. Among those are more than 400 foreigners, of whom 278 will be released.
News agency Reuters claims it’s “the largest number of prisoners ever involved in a royal pardon”, and most of the media around the world are copying this little detail. Even the BBC mentions the royal pardon’s “record numbers”.
Well, if you do a quick Google, you can prove them both wrong.
An archived copy of Maroc Hebdo International (PDF file) from May 2003 shows that the birth of the crown prince, Moulay Hassan, was celebrated with the release of 9,500 prisoners and the reduction of prison terms for over 38,000 others. All in all 15,000 more pardons than this time around.
The birth of Princess Lalla Khadija was announced on Wednesday. Moroccan newspapers published the first picture of the king’s second child today, like L’Opinion.
It is a tradition for the Moroccan king to pardon prisoners to mark islamic holidays and royal celebrations.