Moroccan Historian and Rights Activist Maâti Monjib Sentenced to Prison, Sparking Outcry

At the age of 60, the historian, author of several critical works on the Moroccan power and the monarchy and defender of Moroccan human rights, prosecuted for several years, was finally convicted with six other journalists and human rights activists by the court of first instance in Rabat, recalls RTBF. "This is a trial that began in 2015. It was postponed 21 times. And as you know, we learn that he has been sentenced to one year in prison. While the file was not opened, the lawyers did not plead, Maati Monjib, who should have been present, it’s the A-B-C of a fair trial, was in prison...," reacted the Moroccan journalist Omar Brouksy, stressing that "it is a sham of justice, it is a judicial carnage..."

Already in early January, RSF denounced a "real judicial, police and media harassment" against Maati Monjib. In mid-January, Free Press Unlimited, one of the NGOs that participated in the financing of Maati Monjib’s center, indicated that he "should be acquitted". Last November, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, Reporters Without Borders and other NGOs, gathered in a collective, called on the Moroccan authorities to stop the harassment against Maati Monjib and to drop all unfounded charges against the former professor of the University of Rabat.

However, the authorities rejected any accusation, indicating in a statement that Maati Monjib was "informed of the date of the hearing" and that his "absence, like that of his defense, stems from a voluntary personal decision". A statement refuted by Maati Monjib’s lawyers, who stressed that the latter has always been present at hearings when they were notified. Moreover, Human Rights Watch estimated in its latest annual report that in 2019, Morocco "intensified its repression against commentators on social networks, artists and journalists expressing critical opinions about the monarchy".