Moroccan Regime Covers Up For its Men by Targeting Algeria

The arrest of former Spanish Secretary of State for Security, Francisco Martinez, shook the Moroccan regime, prompting it to launch an unjustified attack on Algeria through the Alaouite Palace’s media, owned and run by Mounir Majidi, the private secretary to Moroccan King Mohammed VI.

The scandal erupted after a tweet by Moroccan opposition figure and journalist Ali Lmrabet, who revealed the involvement of a Spanish official in helping Abdellatif Hammouchi, a powerful figure in the Moroccan regime who heads two major security directorates, the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST) and the General Directorate for National Security (DGSN), escape from French security services in 2014, when they were pursuing him on torture charges.

The tweet read: “The arrest of former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martinez, the number two man in the Spanish Interior Ministry, who in 2014 helped DGST chief Abdellatif Hammouchi escape from French police after a complaint was filed against him in Paris on charges of torture.”

This tweet sparked a state of frenzy among Moroccan media outlets close to the Alawite palace, particularly those run internally, such as the website of the newspaper “le360,” which did not hesitate to attack Algeria without convincing justification, accusing it of harboring the Moroccan opposition figure and using him to attack the Moroccan regime.

While the newspaper owned by the Moroccan king’s private secretary attacked the opposition figure who posted his opinion on X, this remains a natural response, given that Ali Lmrabet has been troubling the palace with his tireless activity on social media. However, dragging Algeria into this “Quixotic” battle can only be understood from one perspective: the Moroccan regime is attempting to give this leak a larger dimension than it deserves by falsely accusing Algeria of being behind it.

The Moroccan king’s personal secretary and palace strongman claimed that Ali Lmrabet was working for Algeria. However, the accusation turned out to be mere delusions and suspicions when Le360 reported that the Moroccan opposition figure was recruited by Algeria, “most likely in exchange for periodic subsidies, to target Moroccan institutions.”

In response to Lmrabet’s tweet, the pro-Alaoui newspaper acknowledged that French security services had gone to the Moroccan ambassador’s residence in Paris on February 20, 2014, to deliver a judicial summons to him. This was based on a lawsuit filed by a human rights NGO, which combats torture and defends victims of Abdellatif Hammouchi in Moroccan prisons.

The Moroccan opposition figure was surprised by Algeria’s inclusion in the concentrated media campaign targeting him after that tweet, and responded with other tweets, one of which read: “Why do they automatically and reflexively mention Algeria? Does the issue have anything to do with Algeria?” The case concerns the imprisonment of a Spanish security officer who, according to Lmrabet, had previously colluded in smuggling the head of Moroccan intelligence from France in 2014, to avoid being caught by French security services.

The Moroccan opposition figure also commented sarcastically on the chaos that erupted in the royal palace and its surroundings following his tweet: “Although Moroccan journalists don’t work on Saturdays, some of them had to work overtime yesterday to respond to a short tweet from this weak man, Ali Lmrabet, and bravely defend the controversial figure, Commissar Abdellatif Hammouchi, Director General of the General Directorate of National Security and Political Police (DGST).”

“Yesterday, everyone had a free round of alcoholic drinks at the bars,” he added sarcastically, referring to the leaks that usually occur in the corridors and halls of the Moroccan regime, where journalists are treated as mere tools that operate automatically according to the way they are programmed.