Criminal notification: Check if your national ID card has been renewed

The major legal event of this year was the publication of Law 03.23 relating to the Code of Criminal Procedure in the Official Gazette and its entry into force three months later, on December 8th.

Among its key measures are the radical changes to the notification procedures in legal proceedings. Starting Monday, December 8, 2025, individuals involved in legal proceedings are considered to have been validly notified based on the last address shown on their national identity card (CNIE), even if they have moved. Abdellatif Ouahbi, Minister of Justice, recently announced this with great emphasis in Parliament, strongly urging citizens to regularize their situation by renewing their national identity card in case of a change of address, as stipulated by Law No. 04.20 governing the electronic national ID card. If a defendant faces criminal proceedings and has not updated their national identity card (CIN) due to a change of address, they are considered to have been notified or summoned. Consequently, they must serve the sentence imposed upon them. There will be no possibility of guardianship, judgment in absentia, or appeal. This applies to individuals involved, for example, in cases of assault and battery, hit-and-run accidents, etc.
This provision aims to definitively resolve the problems related to the difficulties in notifying persons who cannot be found or who use many subterfuges to avoid being given the notice of notification which marks the valid course of a legal action, hence judicial proceedings which drag on and clog the courts.
For the time being, notification via the address on the identity card remains limited to criminal cases. However, it could be extended to the Code of Civil Procedure in the near future, as negotiations have already begun. In any case, this is good news for people who have initiated legal proceedings and whose cases have been dragging on, sometimes for years, because the opposing party is not being notified due to an invalid address. This is where the guardian’s procedure comes in, to address this problem and allow the legal action to proceed to the next stage. But this process can sometimes take several months.