El Mustapha Ramid, lawyer, politician and PJD minister

A lawyer by profession, this “child of the bled [countryside]” was born in 1959, at a time when civil registry was still imprecise (as evidenced by the date of January 1), in the El Jadida region.

An early political career

He joined the then clandestine association of the “Islamic Youth” (Chabiba Islamiya) at the age of fifteen, where he made his first steps in politics.

He was elected deputy of the future PJD in 1997, in Casablanca, a mandate that he then retained. He has a personal war with Fouad Ali El Himma, adviser to the king, who prevents him from obtaining the position of leader of the parliamentary group. In exchange, he will say of him that it is unacceptable for the king to display himself in public with Fouad Ali El Himma.

Ambiance, ambiance, then when he enters the first Benkirane government, in 2012, after his party won the legislative elections.

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A contested minister

He became “Minister of Justice and Freedoms” in both Benkirane governments, and then, from April 2017, “Minister of State in charge of Human Rights and Relations with Parliament“.

His opponents reproach him for his public stances against homosexuality, public and brutal (“sexual deviance”, homosexuals would be “garbage”) that they find incompatible with his role as a defender of human rights. Later, during the events of the Hirak, he was an advocate of extremely harsh justice.

No longer in the executive, but still active

In 2021, he left the Ministry of Justice for health reasons. He continued to speak out publicly. In 2026, he criticised the government – and the Minister for Agriculture in particular – over the “historic surge” in sheep prices.