Moroccan Activist Jailed for 5 Years Over Anti-Israel Posts and Earthquake Claims

In addition to the prison sentence, Abderrahmane Zankad was fined 50,000 dirhams. He was also convicted of disseminating "false information" about the authorities’ management of the earthquake that hit Morocco in September 2023. The 48-year-old activist was arrested on March 22. According to his lawyer El Hassan Essoni, he intends to appeal. In court, he claimed that he did not "specifically target the King of Morocco, but the neighboring Arab leaders of Palestine".

In a statement, Al Adl Wal Ihssane condemned "in the strongest terms" an "unjust" judgment. According to this banned but tolerated movement, which organizes pro-Palestinian demonstrations every week since the start of the war in Gaza, the conviction of its member Zankad "only serves to consolidate the certainty that we are in a state riddled with authoritarianism and tyranny." "We condemn this unjust decision in the strongest terms. It is part of the continuity of unjust decisions targeting the opponents of Al Adl Wal Ihsane, journalists and the leaders of the Rif Movement," it adds. The organization refers to a 2016 protest movement (Hirak, editor’s note) whose leaders were later convicted and imprisoned.

Al Adl Wal Ihssane also condemned the proceedings against other opponents of normalization. The organization cited the case of Saïd Boukyoud, sentenced in November to three years in prison for insulting the king in a series of Facebook posts about normalization.