Abdelali Hamieddine, a former member of parliament for the Justice and Development Party (PJD), was sentenced on Tuesday to 3 years in prison and ordered to pay 20,000 dirhams in compensation to the deceased’s family by the Fez Court of Appeal for committing “an intentional homicide.”
The PJD member was at the time out on bail for involvement in the deliberate murder of left-wing student Benaïssa Aït El Jid in 1993 near the University of Sidi Mohammed Benabdellah, also known as Dhar Mehraz.
However, once an additional eyewitness–known only as “K.H.”–came forward, the Criminal Chamber of the Fez Court of Appeal found otherwise. As a result, the case was revived 25 years later.
The primary defendant in the case, Hamieddine, has consistently denied all allegations, including deliberate murder. Since the beginning of the trial, his party has fought for him tooth and nail.
In the same case, the Fez Court of Appeal sentenced four PJD members in September 2019.
The party leader, who was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail in 1993, with time already served, received compensation from the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) in 2004 for the torture he endured during his arrest.
He has been claiming his innocence for years, emphasizing the concept of res judicata; in other words, the legal consequence of a final judgment which is no longer subject to appeal (non bis in idem). Res judicata often binds the parties and all courts together, thus preventing them from resolving the same matter independent of each other.