Morocco releases Islam Khoualed after 11 months of prison

Champion of Sailing, Islam Djihad, 16, was held in Morocco since last February 11, i.e., 11 months ago, on charges of raping a Moroccan minor who participated in the same event, and was condemned with a year of imprisonment and a financial fine.

Islam Djihad Khoualed left the Center of Events in Agadir after the decision to release him, that signed by a legal committee supervised by the head of the Criminal Court, as the father of Islam, told Echorouk in a phone conversation on Friday, from Agadir; “During the last week, a request to the Court was lifted but it has been rejected in form because it did not enter the legal aspects in the release request”.

“I made a second plea to the court that was lifted by the lawyer Sellam Khaled, giving guarantees, which is a certificate that was issued by the Ministry of National Education confirming that if Islam will not join his school before the start of the second semester, he will lose his right to schooling and wasted a year for the second time, because of the end of the legal time limits, and he will not be able to repeat the school year, in addition to providing a second document from the center of events which confirms good behavior of the kid during his stay at the center”.

After the decision to obtain the release, Islam’s father went to the Center of Events, where they signed the permission to liberate him immediately.

“I do not want any official or civil association to intervene because I’ve done all the procedures and the authorities concerned did not bother to contact us to know the result of the demand.”

“When Islam saw off his friends in the center, there was a sad and poignant atmosphere, as a group of his comrades were crying, and asked him not to forget and to contact them. My son gave all his clothes to his colleagues, and then went to the market in Agadir to buy clothes in order to return to Algeria, but because his passport expired, he was unable to return back to homeland Algeria. I will raise a request to the Algerian consulate to give him a receipt for entering to Algeria and then extract a new passport”.

Islam’s uncle, Bachir Khoualed, expressed in a telephone interview with Echorouk that it is sad because the Algerian authorities did not intervene for the release of Islam, who was sentenced 11 months ago; “For us, Islam spent full punishment all. Thanks to Allah and congratulations to Algeria and to the family of Islam, because the son of the family is an Algerian hero, and the Algerian consulate in Morocco should have intervened for his release.”