Human Rights Groups Demand Release of Moroccan Protest Leader Nasser Zefzafi

"We have called for the immediate and unconditional release of Nasser Zefzafi, who is subject to oppressive detention," Amnesty International, the Center for Victims of Torture, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch and POMED (Project on Middle East Democracy) demanded in a statement, also reporting on the deteriorating health of the 43-year-old Rif activist in prison.

Arrested in May 2017 and transferred to a Casablanca prison after organizing demonstrations in his hometown of Al-Hoceima, Nasser Zefzafi, a former 39-year-old unemployed man who became the face of the Hirak, was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison for "conspiracy to undermine the security of the State". Three other defendants, Nabil Ahmijeq, Wassim el-Boustani and Samir Aghid, also received 20-year prison sentences. These sentences were upheld by the Casablanca Court of Appeal.

The Hirak had been triggered by the death in Al Hoceima, in October 2016, of a fish seller, crushed in a garbage truck while trying to oppose the seizure of his merchandise.