Mohamed Tabet

Mohamed Mustapha Tabet (, 1939 – September 5, 1993), known by his nickname Hajj Policier or Hajj Tabet , was a Moroccan serial rapist and former police commissioner who was involved in the kidnapping, rapes and assaults of more than 518 girls and women in his Casablanca apartment from 1986 to 1993.

The case became one of the most egregious examples of police corruption and sexual abuse in the country, as Tabet used his status to dismiss and cover-up evidence of his crimes. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to death in March 1993, and was subsequently executed by firing squad in September. As of 2026, Tabet remains the last person to be executed in Morocco.

Early life and career Mohamed Mustapha Tabet was born the son of a Quranic teacher in 1939 in Casablanca, Morocco. After graduating high school in 1960, he worked as an Arabic teacher in a small school in Beni Mellal where he rapidly got promoted to headmaster before resigning. The girl had jumped from Tabet's first-floor apartment window before he was able to abuse her. The indictment noted a specific incident where Tabet allegedly raped three women from the same family; a mother, her daughter, and her 15-year-old niece.

Tabet had filmed most of his assaults, confessing to having spent over 5,000 dirham per month on prostitutes, male and female, and producing videotapes which he allegedly sold overseas. Lahlou and three police commissioners involved in the cover-up were later sentenced.

Arrest and investigation In 1990, a woman and her girlfriend were reported to have filed a complaint for rape and kidnapping to local police in the Hay Mohammadi district of Casablanca against someone calling themselves "Hajj Hamid".

Tabet was taken into custody after four days as a fugitive for interrogation and was allegedly subject to torture and beatings. The Public Prosecutor of Casablanca later described the tapes as "[...] not only pornographic recordings, but the most horrific recordings in the history of humanity", while Moroccan press named the case "one of the worst examples of police corruption and cover-ups in the country's history".

On February 18, 1993, Tabet's trial started. The trial was held in camera during Ramadan, and he was charged with "indecent assault, defloration, rape with violence, abduction, and sequestration of a married woman, acts of barbarism and incitement to debauchery, falsification and destruction of evidence" in front of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Casablanca. The judge was Lahcen Tolfi, and Tabet was represented by Mohamed Afrit Bennani.

The trial was highly criticized and denounced. Tabet's father disowned him after the verdict.

Execution On September 5, 1993, six months after his trial, at Kenitra Central Prison, Tabet was woken up by the call to Fajr prayer. He was the first person to be executed in Morocco since 1982.

His family was not allowed to witness the execution. Tabet's widow, Malika Abbassi, expressed her intent to sue Lahlou. Lahlou dismissed Abbassi by saying "if [Abbassi] sues me, she will do me a great service because I will be able to go from the anonymity that has always pursued me to finally become famous".