Moroccan Activist Detained After Public Philosophy Debate on Political Prisoners

Of the two activists arrested, only Nabil Belkabir returned home the same day. As for Younes Benkhdim, he was "placed in custody", according to several activists and civil society actors, including Youssef Raissouni, a member of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH).

After his release, Nabil Belkabir explained that the discussion lasted an hour with the participation of about sixty people. At the heart of the exchanges, the issue of political detention, the state of democracy and the tightening of the grip on freedom of expression in Morocco. "Everything was going well until a policeman physically assaulted Younes Benkhdim, the moderator and initiator of the debate," he explains.

"I tried to interfere to calm the situation, but we were both eventually taken to the police station," adds the activist member of Tilila, a structure that promotes "the construction of critical thinking and collective knowledge essential to an autonomous, emancipated and solidary society", reports Telquel.

For now, Nabil Belkabir admits that he does not understand the reasons why they were arrested, when they were just "discussing, exchanging on issues of public interest". He claims that recently the activist Younes Benkhdim had "undertaken a tour in several cities to discuss political detention, when he was arrested, then released in Agadir".

Younes Benkhdim is strongly supported on social networks, by several activists and journalists like Omar Radi, prosecuted on provisional release for "contempt of a magistrate". Younes Benkhdim, for his part, is officially in custody.