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The journalist, Omar Radi, 33, he spent five days in jail and was released the 31 of December because of a tweet published in April criticizing a judge that you applied to sentences of several years in prison against protesters in al hoceima. Radi-came out on bail and his trial was held in march. But it hangs on him a sentence of one year in jail.
For that Radi was released in the interim dozens of activists created a National Committee of Support. This civil organization, presented on Thursday a report in Rabat which he claims that the arrest of Radi was not an isolated event and is due to an action of “systematic” of the State to silence the dissenting voices in the social networks. The committee ensures that in 2019 were prosecuted 15 people for making comments in the nets, eight of them only in December. “It may be that the figure is even higher,” said Fayruz Yusfi, a member of the organization. “Because there are cases that have not come out in the media and the families have a fear that will transcend”.
The rapper Mohamed Munir, 32 years of age, known in the artistic world as a Gnawi, was sentenced on 25 November to a year in prison for a crime of defamation to the moroccan police in social networks. The Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) reported that their incarceration was due to an act of retaliation by the authorities after the broadcast on YouTube of a song, along with two other rappers, where he criticizes the king Mohamed VI. The song is titled 3acha cha3b (long Live the people, in dialectal Arabic (moroccan).
expand photo Participants in the protest against the convictions of freedom of expression in social networks, this Thursday, in front of the Parliament in Rabat. F. P.
Just a week after the imprisonment of Gnawi, a court sentenced him in Tetouan to four years in prison to the youtuber Mohamed Sekaki, known as Mul Kaskita, after airing a video criticizing the king, a figure of inviolable according to the Constitution, and called “ignorant” and “asses” to the moroccans who “see their rights trampled on without saying a peep”. The office of the prosecutor moroccan issued a statement in which he pointed out that several expressions used in the video have no relation with the freedom of expression and constitute “crimes sanctioned by law”.
last December 17, the young man Ayub Mahfud, 18, was sentenced to three years in prison in the firm by a court of first instance of Meknes, after spreading on Facebook the lyrics of the song, for which he had been sentenced the rapper Gnawi. The letter was accompanied by a photo, described the ruling as “scandalous”, which referred to the king.
The mother of Ayub Mahfud said between tears to the half-moroccan Hibapress: “Three years is too much! He will not be able to bear it. He is young and is sick. I have to be at your side when you take a shower for fear that you will faint”. His father also stated, in words reproduced by the weekly Telquel: “My son wanted to be a soldier, like myself, to defend their country. I have worked for 34 years as a soldier in the moroccan Sahara desert [sic]”, in reference to the Western Sahara.
The press conference where the Committee of Support to Omar Radi presented this Thursday his report was held at the headquarters of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH), the NGO most relevant to the country. Hakim Sikuk, a member of this organization, indicated that the key to most of these arrests is the criticism of the monarch. “The power is afraid of these criticisms, and the only way I found to avoid it is the repression.”
For his part, the journalist Omar Radi, present at the conference, noted: “For a long time the State has attempted to control the press. The people then began to use social networks. Sometimes with sarcasm, with irony, many internet users began to criticize the police, to the Justice or the king. You broke a taboo, and that is what you want to avoid the State now”.
The allegation of the prosecution against Omar Radi came after the journalist published a tweet criticizing the judge who sentenced with penalties of up to 20 years in prison, four activists rifeños, among them the symbol of the protests in al-hoceima, Nasser Zafzafi. Three other rifeños were sentenced to 15 years and six of them in 10 years. The tweet from Omar Radi said: “Lahcen Talfi, judge of the court of appeal, the executioner of our brothers and sisters, let us remember well of him. In many regimes, the little arms as he come to plead after saying that ‘running orders’. There was no oblivion or forgiveness for these officers without dignity!”.
the members of The Committee of Support to Omar Radi have convened this Thursday a sit-in in front of Parliament backed by a thirty people to protest against the convictions against the freedom of expression in social networks. During the arab spring, the criticisms were so vague against corruption or abuse of power. Now focus on Mohamed VI. “Four years ago, the arrests related to freedom of expression is produced under any other pretext. Now there is a change of strategy and the State stopped directly for crimes related to freedom of expression. The difference now is that the criticisms are made directly against the king”, has stated during the sit-Ahmed Benchemsi, representative of Human Rights Watch to Morocco and the middle East.
