Thousands of people rallied, last Sunday in Rabat to ask for the release of the rural movement (Hirak Rif) ‘s activists who raised tension in the northern of Morocco in 2016 and 2017 after their convictions by the Court of Appeal and its rule for up to 20 years of imprisonment. The activists ask for a royal amnesty as a final solution to their release, and the meeting of their legitimate social demands.
The protestors raised slogans such as” " The people wants to free the detainee. " and raised banners in support of the movement’s detainees.
The protest, called by the detainees’ families, and the human rights and political organizations, was entitled "The Moroccan people’s march: Stop the political injustice".
In the beginning of April, the Casablanca appeals court upheld a 20-year prison verdict for the "leader", Naser Zafzafi (39 years old), and three of his comrades after being convicted on charges including “the conspiracy to affect the state’s security”.
The rest of the court's initial judgments, issued in June, ranged from 15 years to one year imprisonment.
Last week, the authorities transferred the detained activists in Casablanca to prisons in the north of the kingdom, to be close to their relatives’ homes.
In Al-Hoceima city, the rural capital of northern Morocco, the convicts were arrested between May and June 2017, on the grounds of "Hirak Rif”". In August 2018, 11 of them were released with a royal amnesty.
"Hirak Rif" carried social and economic demands for months between the fall of 2016 and the summer of 2017, while it accused the authorities of serving a secessionist agenda and plotting to harm the state’s security; where the first demonstration was in protest against the incident involving the fish vendor, Mohsen Fikri.
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