Jailed Moroccan Protest Leader Rejects Political Parties, Calls for Direct Talks with State

While he has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, Nasser Zefzafi has just indicated the only possible interlocutor for him to solve the problems of the Rif: The State. If the latter has, as Zefzafi stipulates, "the sincere intention and will to do so, the dialogue and initiatives can only take place with the activists of the popular Hirak". Political parties, it seems, are to be swept aside.

Indeed, in a message transmitted by his father on social networks, Nasser Zefzafi asks the activists of the Rif to refrain from any discussion with political parties regarding the future of the Rif. Zefzafi writes: "As an activist of the popular Hirak of the Rif, I will not participate in the dialogue with any party that takes suspicious or mined initiatives. Nor can I allow opportunists and traitors to exploit the sufferings of the Rif and its tragedies, without denouncing them, because all they are interested in is filling their stomachs and their bank accounts." For him, "political offices" are in fact "part of the problem", we can read on the Article19 website.

Moreover, he indicates that political parties have undertaken initiatives aimed at "humiliating the Rif" and "extinguishing the hirak".

As for the Moroccan State, Nasser Zefzafi sends it a clear message: "The State must seriously reflect on effective and serious solutions and the consequences of any intransigence, which will not serve it at all. The homeland is above all empty slogans, the prestige of the State lies in its ability to respond to the demands of the people and democracy in listening to the voice of the masses."

The release of the Hirak detainees, the abandonment of prosecutions against persons implicated in the Hirak and the accountability to be demanded from any person involved in violations and crimes against the Rif are just as many other demands of the Hirak leader who, according to the same source, refuses "the label of ’leader’ while affirming that he is a political prisoner deprived of his freedom under number 74823".