Amnesty International Urges Morocco to End Prosecution of Rights Activists Over Social Media Posts

No truce in the promotion of human rights defense and respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International stated on April 7, 2022 that the Moroccan authorities have tightened the harassment targeting human rights defenders and activists over the past two months. The organization cites at least four of them who are the subject of judicial information and criminal proceedings related to social media posts critical of the authorities.

Saida El Alami. Human rights defender, also a member of the Moroccan Women Against Political Detention collective, which brings together human rights defenders and denounces politically motivated detentions, was arrested on March 23 for her social media posts, in particular a Facebook post on March 22 in which she criticized the director of the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) and the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST).

Brahim Nafai. He is a philosophy teacher and national secretary of the youth branch of the political party Annahj Addimocrati (the Democratic Way). The police in the city of Settat summoned him on March 8 regarding a Facebook post he shared that called for a three-day boycott of fuel purchases, and his account was suspended the same day. The next day, "Brahim Nafai was questioned by two police officers at the Settat police station for more than three and a half hours. He was not informed of any follow-up to this case," it was reported.

Abderrazak Boughanbour. Summoned by the police on February 17, 2022 for having shared a publication three times on his Facebook page, inviting the Moroccan Social Front, which is a coalition of associations, political movements and unions, to join the planned demonstrations to commemorate the February 20 movement, which called for political reform, Abderrazak Boughanbour, former president of the Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights (LMDDH) was questioned at the Skhirat-Témara police station for more than three hours about his political career, trade union action and human rights activism, as well as his Facebook posts.

Mohamed Bouzlouf. This blogger was arrested on March 26 in Casablanca for expressing his solidarity with Saida El Alami on Facebook two days earlier. Accused of "undermining established institutions", "influencing justice" and "undermining legal decisions" under Articles 265 and 266 of the Penal Code, he was sentenced by the Ouarzazate court to two months in prison and a fine of 2,000 DH on April 4.