فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Rabat – The Criminal Chamber of First Instance at the Rabat Court of Appeal has concluded the case of a young man who attempted to murder a herbalist in Salé, accusing him of practicing witchcraft. News reports detailing the proceedings confirmed that the aforementioned judicial body sentenced the defendant, in his twenties, to ten years of imprisonment following a tense trial session attended by the victim, who bore visible signs of the serious assault he endured, particularly on his chest and hand, as corroborated by medical reports in the case file.
According to the case file, based on the defendant’s statements and confessions, the accused used to accompany his mother frequently to “Bab Khemis” in Salé, where the victim, a herbalist, had his shop, to purchase certain items whose nature and uses he claimed to be unaware of. The defendant alleged that his mother’s visits to the shop coincided with the outbreak of continuous disputes between his parents, which ended in their divorce, leading him to hold the herbalist fully responsible, believing that he was preparing witchcraft recipes for his mother, which caused the strained relationship with his father.
The defendant’s feelings towards the herbalist evolved from a reaction to the fate of his family’s relationship, which ended in his parents’ divorce, to a deep sense that the herbalist was personally targeting him through acts of sorcery and witchcraft that haunted his sleep and caused him to lose his balance and psychological and professional stability, ultimately driving him to seek revenge. He went to the Bab Khemis area, stormed the victim’s shop, and proceeded to beat and stab him with a bladed weapon, inflicting serious injuries to his chest and hand.
The Regional Security Services arrested the defendant in June of last year, after which he was referred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and subsequently to the investigating judge, who ordered his detention and prosecution on charges of attempted intentional homicide and insulting a public official while performing their duties.
In a related incident, the Sahloul area of Salé was shaken three weeks prior by a serious assault committed by a man in his thirties against a seventy-year-old man, whom he accused of practicing rituals of sorcery and witchcraft.
The territorial gendarmerie elements of the Sahloul territorial center, affiliated with the Salé gendarmerie company, referred a 39-year-old man to the Attorney General at the Rabat Court of Appeal on charges of attempted intentional murder of a seventy-year-old “sorcerer,” whom he injured with a skull fracture resulting in internal bleeding, after accusing him of practicing rituals of sorcery and witchcraft using remnants of children’s circumcision procedures.
Sources confirmed that the Royal Gendarmerie services in the city received a report indicating the discovery of a seventy-year-old man in critical health condition in the Sahloul area, showing signs of torture and severe beatings. He was transferred to the emergency department of the Moulay Abdellah Hospital Center in Salé before being moved to the intensive care unit after confirmation of a skull fracture. Following the intervention of specialized investigation teams from the Salé gendarmerie company, the suspect’s identity was determined. The sorcerer’s wife, as well as statements from some neighborhood residents, confirmed that the individual frequently visited the victim’s house and had threatened him, claiming that the victim was subjecting him to acts of sorcery and witchcraft using remnants of circumcision procedures that the victim practiced in the village. The same statements were corroborated by the suspect before the judicial police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, adding that he intentionally assaulted the victim in revenge for his practice of traditional child circumcision and his retention of the foreskins for use in sorcery rituals. The suspect also confessed to repeatedly striking the victim with a sharp instrument.
These two incidents highlight the danger of believing in magic and sorcery and its potential to escalate into acts of violence and serious crimes.
