In the 129-page report, “They’ll Get You No Matter What: Morocco’s Playbook to Crush Dissent,” Human Rights Watch documents a range of tactics that, when used together, form an ecosystem of repression, aiming not only to muzzle dissenting voices but to scare off all potential critics. The tactics include unfair trials and long prison terms for nonspeech criminal charges, harassment and smear campaigns in state-aligned media, and targeting dissidents’ relatives. Critics of the state were also subjected to video and digital surveillance, and in some cases to physical intimidation and assault that the police failed to investigate properly.
Following a crackdown on the independent press in Morocco, human rights activists face increased repression and extended prison sentences. By Abdellatif El Hamamouchi
In May this year, the leading Spanish newspaper El Correo said Morocco was reportedly being investigated by Spanish intelligence agencies as the source behind the malware targeting several Spanish officials.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns yesterday’s decisions by a Moroccan appeal court to uphold journalist Omar Radi’s six-year jail sentence and his colleague Imad Stitou one-year jail sentence (with six months suspended) after proceedings marred by many irregularities. Their convictions must be quashed and they must be released at once, RSF says.