Rabat & New Delhi Agree on Mutual Legal Assistance in Fight Against Crimes

The governments of Morocco and India agreed on Monday to provide mutual legal assistance (MLA) in the fight against crimes and particularly in the extradition of fugitives who are accused of economic offenses, terrorism and other serious crimes.

The cooperation pact was signed in New Delhi by India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and Morocco’s Minister of Justice Mohamed Aujjar.

“The agreement will strengthen bilateral cooperation with Morocco and enhance effectiveness and provide a broad legal framework for prevention, investigation and prosecution of crimes; as well as in tracing, restraint and confiscation of funds meant to finance terrorist acts,” said India’s ministry of Home Affairs in a press release.

In August, Morocco’s Interior Ministry and India International Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore inked a Memorandum of Understanding for developing a modular open source platform (MOSIP), a digital platform that will enable the North African Kingdom to register its citizens and foreign residents with unique identities.

Morocco will be the first country to participate in the development of MOSIP and will be its first user. The project is backed by the World Bank as part of its efforts to implement digital identification systems across the world.