The Moroccan regime continues its repressive campaign against public freedoms and human rights, resorting to arbitrary arrests and severe penalties to silence protesters and those demanding social justice.
The head of the Marrakech branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), Omar Arbib, said in a statement on Wednesday, that the sentences handed down by the Marrakech Court of Appeal against 48 young people who participated in protest sit-ins “reflect a systematic policy to terrorize civil society and silence those who speak out against the regime, including minors and people with disabilities, which confirms the retaliatory nature of these cases.”
In the same context, Nezha Majdi, a teacher and detainee, was transferred from “El Arjat” prison to Berrechid prison, in what the National Coordination of Contract-Forced Teachers and Support Staff called “a retaliatory measure aimed at breaking her resolve and displacing her family.” Majdi was sentenced to three months of effective imprisonment on arbitrary charges, with the court rejecting any substitution of the custodial sentence with an alternative penalty, further tightening the grip on peaceful human rights activity.
Human rights activist Kholoud Mokhtari is also facing multiple forms of retaliatory pressure due to her involvement in human rights advocacy and her support for her husband, journalist Soulaimane Raissouni, whom United Nations mechanisms have recognized as an arbitrarily detainee.
Human rights organization “Karama” reaffirmed, in an official statement, that the violations against Mokhtari included defamation campaigns, surveillance, intimidation and privacy breaches, constituting a targeted pattern against women who demand justice and engage international mechanisms to uphold their rights.
The organization also announced that it submitted a complaint on February 2nd to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls concerning the case of human rights activist Kholoud Mokhtari, stressing that she had been subjected to acts of retaliation in connection with her peaceful activism, and that her case embodies a pattern of silencing women who denounce violations or resort to international mechanisms.
