Human Rights In Morocco On The European Parliament’s Table This Thursday

The French protection weakened, and the scandals of the Moroccan Makhzen regime were exposed. Rabat is facing European anger. This is the phrase that summarizes the nature of the relationship these days between the Makhzen regime and the European Union.

After decades of covering up, the European Parliament decided to discuss the woeful situation of human rights in Morocco this Thursday, in a public session, in a precedent that had not happened in a quarter of a century, says the Belgian newspaper “Le Soir”, despite the disastrous situation in the Kingdom of the Makhzen in terms of freedom of expression and human rights, which recently witnessed the imprisonment of the activist, human rights defender and former minister, Mohammed Zayan, for three years in a trial in which the simplest fair trials were absent, simply because he asked who was ruling the kingdom during the six-month period that the king was in France.

The European move came about two weeks after the visit of the High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the Union, Josep Borrell, to Rabat, which witnessed warm slaps by the European official to the Makhzen regime in his own backyard, against the backdrop of bribery and espionage scandals in which the Moroccan regime is deeply involved.

Thus, the Moroccan regime has become terrified of the new European position, which crystallized after evidence and proofs condemning the makhzen officials in scandals of bribery, espionage, and violation of human rights, with on focus the serious drift in the old continent, notably in France, where the phone of its president, Emmanuel Macron was spied on, in what was known as the “Pegasus” scandal.

The new approach of the European Union in dealing with the Moroccan regime was expected in the eyes of the Rabat government. A few days ago, government spokesman Mustapha Paytas spoke about targeting his country’s relations with Brussels by political and media parties in the old continent, in the wake of the European press publishing scandals. A network of corruption and bribes in which the Moroccan Foreign Military Intelligence (General Directorate for Studies and Documentation) was involved, along with European parliamentarians from Greece, Italy and Belgium, in the largest corruption network involving 60 representatives from various European countries, according to Greek media reports.

The opening of the human rights file in the Kingdom of the Makhzen by the European Union means the collapse of trust between Rabat and Brussels, and taking such a step indicates that the European Union decided to strike the Moroccan regime, because it realizes that the human rights situation in the Alawite kingdom is in a very bad situation.

Disastrously, there are journalists convicted of harsh political sentences, such as journalist Tawfiq Bouachrine, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence, simply because he wrote an article criticizing the Makhzen regime, even if the charges were covered in fabricated moral garb.

Journalist Suleiman Raissouni is also serving a five-year prison sentence because of his writings critical of the regime. He worked alongside journalist Bouachrine in the newspaper “Al-Youm 24”, which was temporarily suspended from publication.

Moral charges were also fabricated against him so that he would not give the impression that the case was related to freedom of expression, as is the case of a journalist. Another member of the same opposition newspaper, Hajar Al-Raysouni, who was also imprisoned on fabricated moral charges, as well as another journalist, Omar Al-Radi, who in turn is serving a six-year prison sentence, also for fabricated moral reasons.

Although the human rights situation in Algeria is very far away, and there is no way to compare it at all with what is happening in Morocco (the penalties for journalists reach 15 years, similar to the case of Tawfik Bouachrine, and the conviction of human rights activists to 20 years, like the case of Nasser Zefzafi and his friends), but it was Algeria that was present every time in the sessions of the European Parliament, under the influence of its corrupt deputies, in exchange for confronting any attempt to discuss the human rights situation in the Makhzen Kingdom.

The investigations carried out by the Belgian justice in the scandal of bribery of the European Parliament revealed the involvement of European representatives, led by Pierre Antonio Panziri, in covering up the somber human rights situation in the Kingdom of the Makhzen, which means that the exposure of the scandal prevented any member of the European Parliament from advancing.

Thanks to the money paid by the Moroccan regime to corrupt deputies, the European Parliament succeeded in preventing the Sakharov Prize from being awarded to candidates who advocate self-determination in the Western Sahara conflict, such as the Sahrawi human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, as well as one of the figures of the movement in the countryside, Nasser Zefzafi, who is serving a full twenty years in prison with many rural activists, yet Brussels did not dare to criticize those unjust sentences that were not based on any legal justifications.