Morocco Refutes RSF Claims on Prisoner Rights, Denies Detainee is Journalist

According to clarifications made on Saturday by the communication department at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Mohamed Lamin Haddi is not a journalist and is imprisoned under normal conditions meeting international standards and norms.

"The person concerned enjoys all his rights without any discrimination, like all other detainees, and has always been the subject of appropriate medical follow-up," the department assured, summarizing two press releases made public on February 23 and March 2, 2021 by the General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration.

The department points out that the person concerned has never officially practiced the profession of journalist, nor has he taken the necessary steps to benefit from a press card, an essential document for the practice of this profession as provided for by Moroccan law.

And contrary to what is said, the person concerned has never observed a hunger strike and has never been force-fed, the department specifies, adding that the detainee Mohamed Lamin Haddi received a medical visit commissioned by the Regional Human Rights Commission of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, on February 26 last.

Furthermore, the same source points out, the detainee was able to prepare and take the exams of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences Ibn Tofail of Kénitra, organized within the Central House of Kénitra from March 23 to 26, 2021.

Regarding the refusal to allow Haddi’s mother to visit him, the communication department says that it was rather the mother who refused to comply with the health precaution measures related to the Covid-19 pandemic put in place by the Prison Administration. And the mother was heard, on the other hand for disturbances orchestrated on March 3, by her family in front of the local prison of Tifelt 2.

The day before, following a complaint filed by his mother, the penitentiary establishment had even received a visit from the Deputy Prosecutor of the King near the Court of First Instance of Tifelt, the department reveals, specifying that for lack of evidence, this complaint was dismissed by the Attorney General of the King near the Court of Appeal of Rabat.

"At the end of a fair trial followed by many national and international observers, Mohamed Lamin Haddi was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison following his involvement in the savage assassination of 11 law enforcement officers," echoed the communication department of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.