The Court of First Instance in Beni Mellal has convicted a defendant in a case involving unauthorized access to an automated data processing system and the electronic distribution of a student’s private photographs without her consent, following the completion of the investigation and trial proceedings.
According to court documents, the case began after the student filed a complaint alleging that personal photographs had been circulated in a WhatsApp group involving students from her school after someone unlawfully accessed her email account and online photo storage.
During the investigation, the defendant admitted gaining access to the complainant’s email account and digital photo storage after obtaining her password. He also acknowledged viewing the photographs and forwarding some of them to another individual before they were shared within the group.
The court found the defendant guilty of unauthorized access to an automated data processing system through fraudulent means and of distributing another person’s photographs without consent via electronic systems. He was sentenced to four months of immediate imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of 5,000 Moroccan dirhams.
In the civil proceedings, the court awarded the complainant 40,000 Moroccan dirhams in compensation for moral damages resulting from the dissemination of the photographs. The first-instance judgment remains subject to appeal in accordance with Moroccan legal procedures.