A judicial ruling issued by the Court of First Instance of Sidi Kacem on Tuesday, December 26, defends the right to not record and disseminate private phone communications between individuals.
The conviction was handed down by Judge “A. W.” against the president of an association for recording a personal conversation of over 24 minutes with another person and disseminating it through social media.
The accused was sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 2000 dirhams in the criminal case, in addition to paying 20,000 dirhams in damages.
The conviction came as a result of the defendant’s monitoring under Article 1-447 of the Moroccan Penal Code, which considers the recording of a phone conversation by one of the parties as a crime in principle under the same article, as it is considered a violation of the other party’s right to privacy.
Rights advocates highlighted that this judicial ruling reaffirms the right to privacy of phone communications between parties, as long as they are outside the scope of blackmail, threats, or defamation, and that their recording requires a judicial order issued by the competent prosecutor’s office.
