Criminal Forensic Medicine in Morocco: Reality and Prospects

Abstract

The Moroccan legislator authorized the criminal investigator to carry out a set of measures that might help him to find and verify the evidence. These include the assignment of experts such as forensic doctor.

The subject of forensic medicine in Morocco is one of the subjects recommended by the National Council for Human Rights and the need to speed up the issuance of a law regulating the practice of forensic medicine.

In light of the scarcity of references to the study of forensic medicine in Moroccan legislation, we have completed this study, whose content is summarized in the following two paragraphs:

First paragraph: The subject of the first requirement of the study

The first requirement of this study is the requirements of the Moroccan Code of Criminal Procedure as a frame of reference for the appellate judiciary, which empowers the judiciary to delegate the forensic doctor when it faces criminal cases that are difficult for him scientifically, technically and professionally to broadcast without the assistance of specialists. Among the cases that are difficult for the criminal judiciary to broadcast without the help of a forensic doctor, we mention, for example:

- Suspected death cases [1]

- Cases that require determining the proportion of disability resulting from some crimes such as beatings, wound, violence and abuse

- Identification of victims by DNA [2]

- Cases of diagnosis of physical violence

- Cases of proof of the nature of death ...

 We have also addressed some of the criminal responsibilities that a forensic doctor may face, whether in the case of disclosure of a professional secret, or in the case of false testimony and information regarding criminal cases brought before him by the judiciary.

Second paragraph: The second subject of the study

We have devoted the second requirement of this study to the forensic foresight of studying the prosecutions of the draft law on the practice of forensic medicine in Morocco. In accordance with this draft, we have identified the new competencies that have become legalized by the forensic doctor, as well as the organs that maintain exclusively the functions of forensic medicine. We have also identified the bodies that supervise the proper functioning of the forensic profession.