Mustapha Tabet

Mohamed Mustapha Tabet was born the son of a Quranic teacher in 1939 in Casablanca, Morocco. After graduating high school in 1960, he worked as an Arabic teacher in a small school in Beni Mellal where he rapidly got promoted to headmaster before resigning. The girl had jumped from Tabet's first-floor apartment window before he was able to abuse her. Tabet had two wives and had five children. It was reported by TelQuel that Tabet often had depressive episodes, and an inferiority complex. Tabet allegedly felt a need to prove his masculinity. == Crimes ==

According to an indictment filed against Tabet, he admitted to "[regularly having gone] to the gates of schools, faculties, or simply walked the main boulevards" with the sole aim of "hunting his prey". Once his victims were in his car, he would take them directly to his apartment, where the girls gave themselves up, willingly or unwillingly, to his overflowing sexual appetite. He made no distinction between married and single women, virgins and non-virgins. The indictment noted a specific incident where Tabet allegedly raped three women from the same family; a mother, her daughter, and her 15-year-old niece. Tabet had filmed most of his assaults, confessing to having spent over 5,000 dirham per month on prostitutes, male and female, and producing videotapes which he allegedly sold overseas. Lahlou and three police commissioners involved in the cover-up were later sentenced. ==Arrest and investigation==

In 1990, a woman and her girlfriend were reported to have filed a complaint for rape and kidnapping to local police in the Hay Mohammadi district of Casablanca against someone calling themselves "Hajj Hamid". Tabet was taken into custody after four days as a fugitive for interrogation and was allegedly subject to torture and beatings. The Public Prosecutor of Casablanca later described the tapes as "[...] not only pornographic recordings, but the most horrific recordings in the history of humanity", while Moroccan press named the case "one of the worst examples of police corruption and cover-ups in the country's history". He had edited the tapes, as he had filmed multiple angles of his rapes, and also created a compilation of what he considered to be the best parts of his collection; the tape was numbered 32. Tape no. 32 was alleged to contain several Moroccan notables, high-ranking officers and politicians raping his victims. The contents of the tape officially remain unknown. ==Trial and conviction==

On February 18, 1993, Tabet's trial started. The trial was held in camera during Ramadan, and he was charged with "indecent assault, defloration, rape with violence, abduction, and sequestration of a married woman, acts of barbarism and incitement to debauchery, falsification and destruction of evidence" in front of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Casablanca. The judge was Lahcen Tolfi, and Tabet was represented by Mohamed Afrit Bennani. The trial was highly criticized and denounced. Tabet's father disowned him after the verdict. == Execution ==

On September 5, 1993, six months after his trial, at Kenitra Central Prison, Tabet was woken up by the call to Fajr prayer. He was the first person to be executed in Morocco since 1982. His family was not allowed to witness the execution. Tabet's family received his body 48 hours later in a coffin that was sealed shut, and the family refused to get Tabet's body inspected by independent medical examiners. As of 2022, he remains the last person to be executed in Morocco. == Legacy ==

Tabet is buried in Achelh Cemetery, Casablanca. Tabet's widow, Malika Abbassi, expressed her intent to sue Lahlou. Lahlou dismissed Abbassi by saying "if [Abbassi] sues me, she will do me a great service because I will be able to go from the anonymity that has always pursued me to finally become famous". ==See also==