Lawyers Strike in Morocco: Extension of Suspension of Services Due to Law 66.23

The Council of the Association of Bar Associations in Morocco held a Marathon meeting that lasted about ten hours, on Thursday in Rabat, during which it decided to continue to suspend the professional activities of lawyers in the various courts of the Kingdom. This decision comes a few days after the entry into force of Law No. 66.23 on the organization of the legal profession, and after the Constitutional Court was unable to decide on its constitutionality. The dispute between lawyers and the government dates back to late June, when the lawyers' protest against the bill turned into a strike. Open. The law was published in the Official Gazette before it entered into force on Thursday, August 20, at a time when the bodies of lawyers were counting on the Constitutional Court to decide on the appeal against it. However, the court declared that it was unable to examine its conformity with the Constitution, which prompted the Assembly Council to adhere to its rejectionist position and continue to suspend professional activities. Courts under pressure and judicial concerns The Crown Prosecutor at the Court of Appeal warned of the repercussions of the continuation of the crisis on the course of justice, noting that the files related to detainees requires precise procedural safeguards that are difficult to provide in the absence of lawyers' defense, and that the backlog of cases with the length of the province “threatens the normal course of judicial work.” The position of the Bar Association, for its part, Hussein Al-Zayani, President of the Association of Bar Associations in Morocco, defended the decision to continue the strike, considering that responsibility for the crisis lies on the content of the disputed law and not on the actions of lawyers. The reform project is linked to the name of Justice Minister Abdullatif Wahbi, who is known for these controversial provisions in his name in the discussions of the sector for months, while the lawyers' bodies accuse the ministry of passing amendments that affect the independence of the profession without sufficient compatibility with the professional body. With this decision, the strike file enters a new stage without a specific time horizon for its termination, in the absence of any indication that a settlement is about to be reached between the government and the lawyers' bodies, while the litigants, especially those arrested in connection with ongoing cases, remain the party most affected by the continuation of this stalemate.