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Demonstrators, including prominent activists and journalists, gathered in front of Rabat’s parliament on October 2, 2019. NADINE ACHOUI-LESAGE / AP
The procedure is well established and systematic. Moroccan power “crushes all opposition” through the methodical application of a “true manual” of “indirect and underhand techniques” while striving to maintain its image as a “moderate and rights-respecting country,” writes Human Rights Watch ( HRW) in a report published Thursday, July 28. The investigation, based on interviews with nearly 90 people and analysis of 12 trials involving eight journalists or intellectuals, is the first major investigation into the methods used by the Rabat regime over the past decade to “to silence critical voices” and “to frighten everyone”. potential state critics.
Behind the seemingly scattered files of journalists Omar Radi, Hicham Mansouri, Soulaimane Raissouni, Hajar Raissouni and Taoufik Bouachrine, human rights activists Maati Monjib and Fouad Abdelmoumni or lawyer Mohammed Ziane, the same processes of police surveillance, media intimidation and judicial harassment are at work, deciphered the report entitled “‘One way or another they’ll get you’: Handbook of repression techniques in Morocco”. This “set of techniques (…) used in combination form an ecosystem of oppression,” summarizes the HRW report.
Sexual assault cases aim to hide behind the #metoo wave
If the scrutiny of opponents in Morocco has a very ancient history, it took on an unprecedented form from the mid-2010s, the report notes, with the attribution of these dissenting voices to “crimes other than speech”: adultery, rape and sexual assault , espionage, money laundering and even human trafficking. The underlying idea is to avoid as many trials as possible that are too overtly political—those likely to heroize the accused—by downgrading them to the heinous rank of crook, depraved, or rapist. Sexual assault cases in particular aim to hide behind the international #metoo wave to better make the accused untenable.
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Hidden Cameras
Adultery or sex outside of marriage is about besmirching honor in a very conservative Moroccan society. “In Morocco, they say reputation is glass,” Maati Monjib, a historian who faces prosecution for “attacking state security” and “fraud,” told World in April 2021. If it breaks, it won’t hold together. People fear slander more than prison. »
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