Moroccan reform bill passed by House of Representatives

The lower house of the Moroccan Parliament has approved a bill to reform military justice. According to this post on AtlasInfo.fr (rough Google translation):

In a plenary session on Wednesday night, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill relating to military justice which aspires to achieve a deep and comprehensive reform of military justice law adopted in 1956. 

This bill focuses on four main areas, namely the consolidation of the powers of the military court in order to make it a specialized court and not an exceptional one, the definition of the legal nature of the tribunal, the reorganization and support the principle of the independence of the military justice system, and strengthening the guarantees of a fair trial before this court and the protection of the rights of litigants. 

The bill reduces the powers of the military tribunal, since this court will no longer be able to try civilians except in wartime and may not try common law crimes committed by military or paramilitary personnel, crimes committed by minors, or those committed by the military police in the performance of their duties. 

In order to strengthen the guarantees of a fair trial before a military tribunal, the new law reduces from 16 to 5 the number of capital crimes. These cases are defined with great precision and given the sensitivity of the subject, while bearing in mind the supreme interests of Morocco and the peculiarities of the military. It was decided to follow the Code of Criminal Procedure in this regard. 

In an introductory note discussing this Act, the Minister Delegate to the Head of Government responsible for the administration of national defense, Abdellatif Loudiyi, said that this law is a pioneering initiative and a qualitative leap in the process of judicial reform in accordance with high guidance of King Mohammed VI and the implementation of the provisions of the 2011 Constitution.