Moroccan law graduates launch hunger strike after 'rigged' bar exam

Moroccan law graduates launched a hunger strike against the bar exam results, which they say were rigged in favour of "nepo babies."

At the headquarters of the human rights association in Rabat, six law graduates lay on the ground, surrounded by a list of their demands to the ministry of justice.

"Open the investigation and exempt the minister and everyone involved with him in this suspicious exam. Nullifying the exam's results and re-taking the exam under the same conditions," read the list.

Thursday marks their seven days through the hunger strike. Meanwhile, four students were transferred to the city’s hospital after their health situation deteriorated "to a dangerous level," according to the National Committee for Bar Exam Victims.

"We have always rejected the strike step because it harms the health and physical integrity of those who failed the bar exam. But authorities refuse to listen to our demands," Abdul Jawad Farhan, a member of the "National Committee for Bar Exam Victims," said to The New Arab.

The National Committee for Bar Exam Victims says it submitted several complaints to the Court of Cassation as well as official correspondence to the Royal Palace. "We have received no answers yet," the committee told TNA.

The crisis erupted last year in December when only 2,081 graduates of more than 70,000 candidates passed the written bar exam in the country. 

Social media users have pointed out that most admitted candidates had the same family name as the minister, renowned Moroccan lawyers or employees in the justice ministry.

The National Committee for Bar Exam Victims suspects that the exam was rigged in favour of "nepo babies," denying the right of becoming a lawyer to thousands of other law graduates. 

Morocco's minister of justice Abdellatif Ouahbi, whose son was among the accepted candidates, has denied the nepotism allegations, saying he accepted 300 requests of reviewing the exam results "which proved that the results were correct," stressed the minister.

Despite the ongoing scandal, the Justice Ministry has decided to hold oral bar exams this week as the strikers battle for their lives a few kilometres away from the exams centre.

Last Friday, the eleven graduates went to the Ministry of Justice to launch their hunger strike, though they were forced by the police to leave the site.

The minister of justice has yet to comment on the ongoing hunger strike, which is set to continue until authorities respond to the "victims of bar exam demands," warn the law graduates committee.

"Even if our colleagues died during the strike we will continue our journey to achieve our legitimate demands,"  Belach Nada, a member of the National Committee for Bar Exam Victims, told the TNA.