Supervisory Powers of the Sentence Enforcement Judge in Morocco

Abstract

The stage of penal execution occupies a special place in criminal cases, as the intervention of the judiciary is no longer limited to merely pronouncing the verdict and deciding the appropriate penalty. Rather, it has extended to the stage of punitive execution, by involving the judiciary in supervising the implementation of criminal penalties. This is to guarantee the rights of the prisoner and to prevent tyranny from the administration and its dominance over the implementation stage (Prisons Law Regulating 2398 and Implementing decree), in order to achieve the social goals of punitive treatment. For this reason, the system of the sentence enforcement judge was created, with a view towards approving the principle of judicial control over the stage of criminal execution.
The Moroccan legislator, in turn, was keen to reform and update the legal system in accordance with the human rights values stipulated in international covenants and treaties.
The importance of this research lies in its discussion of the issue of judicial institutions in charge of monitoring prison institutions, especially the sentence enforcement judge’s apparatus. It does this through analytical, descriptive and comparative approaches, and by monitoring the contribution to visiting prison institutions, monitoring the legality of detention, and monitoring the rights of prisoners and disciplinary procedures. The research recommends working to strengthen the role of the institution of the sentence enforcement judge to achieve the prisoner’s best interest and seriously activate his rights in practice by amending texts and benefiting from the experiences of other countries, and making more effort and further endeavors, despite the difficulties that limit this, to ensure a fair implementation alongside a fair trial and within the framework of the diversity of mechanisms which always seek to activate and guarantee the rights of the prisoner.