[JURIST] Morocco will become the first Arab country to eliminate the death penalty [JURIST news archive], a state representative confirmed on Thursday. President of the Consultative Committee on Human Rights, Ben Dhikri, made the comments in the run-up to this week's 3rd World Congress Against the Death Penalty [official website] in Paris. Dhikri confirmed that Moroccan MPs and Morocco's King Mohammed VI [official website] share a desire to revise the country's constitution to remove capital punishment as early as April.

Morocco has not carried out the death penalty since 1993. Currently, it is one of 29 countries that has a de facto ban on the practice but has not changed its actual legality. Last month, two Moroccans were sentenced to death for terrorism offenses. AKI has more.