Morocco

Extradition between Italy and Morocco is governed by the bilateral Extradition Convention of 1971, as amended by the 2014 Rabat Additional Agreement, ratified and implemented in Italy by Law No. 1043 of 1973; alternatively, it is governed by the provisions of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure on extradition to foreign States. The incorrect identification of the applicable legal framework—presumably due to the careless use of an incorrect template file—resulted in a manifest violation of the law. This occurred not only because the decision was assessed according to criteria reflecting the principle of mutual recognition, which pertains to judicial cooperation among European Union Member States, rather than according to the specific conventional rules on extradition; but above all because only in the case of a request issued by the judicial authority of another EU Member State is the Italian court empowered to directly order the surrender of the person concerned. Such a mechanism is not permitted within the intergovernmental framework governing extradition. In matters of extradition to foreign States, the judicial decision—aimed at safeguarding the rights involved—must be followed by the issuance of a specific decree by the Minister of Justice authorizing the execution of the extradition, adopted in the exercise of a discretionary political power.