Moroccan Hirak Activist Announces ’Ultimate’ Hunger Strike in Prison

The Rif detainee, Rabie Lablaq, will enter his ultimate hunger strike in the next few days. He announced this through a letter written and published by his brother, Abdellatif Lablaq, on his Facebook account.

"It is not a weakness or cowardice on my part, I try not to break my mother’s and my family’s heart, but unfortunately I can no longer bear it. To my wife, I ask forgiveness for all the suffering I have caused you," he wrote, before describing his distress. "My heart is torn apart day after day. I have become like a bird in a cage dying under successive doses," he said.

Towards the members of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), Rabie Lablaq stated that they are not welcome. Similarly, the detainee is no longer willing to receive "any person who would try to discuss the subject of the hunger strike" with him.

To his Hirak friends, he admitted that they "have done their best by all means of persuasion, but they have been underestimated, their rights denied and their demands manipulated."

"We invited them to discuss in order to resolve the crisis by peaceful means, they refused, accusing us of betrayal and serving colonialism," he concluded.