Spanish and Moroccan coastguards rescued Tuesday 54 illegal migrants who were trying to reach the southern coast of Spain on inflatable boats, Spain's maritime rescue service said.

That brings to nearly 300 the number of migrants who have been plucked from inflatable boats since Friday as they tried to cross the Strait of Gibraltar separating Spain from Morocco.

Sixteen members of Morocco's royal guards died in a road accident Saturday as they were headed north on a bus to prepare for a visit by King Mohammed VI, medics said.

The pre-dawn accident took place near Al-Hoceima in northern Morocco and wounded 42 other guards, a hospital source told Agence France Presse.

Several hundred Moroccans took to the streets late Wednesday to protest against the king's pardon of a convicted Spanish pedophile and demand more independence for the judiciary.

Despite King Mohamed VI's hasty revocation of the pardon and the later re-arrest of the man in Spain, demonstrators marched in front of the parliament building in Rabat, where a previous protest had been dispersed violently on Friday.

A judge remanded in custody Tuesday a convicted child rapist who was arrested in Spain after a controversial pardon by Morocco's king was revoked in the face of angry protests.

The judge ruled that Daniel Galvan Vina, a Spanish national found guilty of raping 11 children aged between four and 15 in Morocco and sentenced to 30 years in prison there, was a flight risk and would remain in custody while his extradition was being considered, the court said.

The royal pardon may have been revoked but residents of the Moroccan city of Kenitra still want to know why a man convicted of raping their children was ever released.

Spanish pedophile Daniel Galvan Vina, who lived in their midst for years, was found guilty of raping 11 children aged between four and 15, and jailed for 30 years in September 2011.

Spanish police on Monday arrested a convicted pedophile who had his pardon revoked by Morocco's King Mohamed VI after it sparked angry protests in the north African country.

Daniel Galvan Vina, a Spaniard found guilty of raping 11 children aged between four and 15 in Morocco and sentenced in September 2011 to 30 years in prison there, was detained in Murcia in southeastern Spain, a Spanish interior ministry spokesman said.

Spain said Monday it was in talks with Morocco on the fate of a Spanish pedophile who had his pardon revoked after it sparked angry protests in the north African country.

King Mohamed VI of Morocco on Sunday revoked a pardon granted to Daniel Galvan Vina, who was convicted of raping 11 children aged between four and 15 and sentenced in September 2011 to 30 years in prison in Morocco.

Moroccans furious over the pardon of a Spanish pedophile convicted of raping 11 children between four and 15 years of age, are planning more protests after demonstrations were brutally repressed Friday.

Social media sites have called for protests in Casablanca and Rabat on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Moroccan police on Friday dispersed a crowd of several thousand people protesting against a royal pardon handed to a Spanish man reportedly convicted of raping 11 children.

Dozens of people including photographers and reporters were injured in clashes with authorities, who stepped in to prevent the protest in front of the parliament building in the capital Rabat.

A court in Morocco on Thursday sentenced to jail the former head of the country's Airport Authority (ODA) and eight others on charges of corruption, their lawyer told Agence France Presse.

"Abdelhanine Benallou, the former head of the ODA, and two of his close assistants were sentenced to five years in prison each, while the others received terms ranging from one to three years in jail," lawyer Salah Foudda said.