The Makhzen Targets Moroccan Anti-Corruption and Normalization Activists

Moroccan human rights activists have renewed their urgent demands to stop the country’s human rights violations.

In light of the Makhzen authorities’ persistence in targeting opponents of corruption and normalization, the Moroccan activists are calling on all free people and active forces in the Kingdom to continue pressurizing for the release of all detainees and to build a state of law, freedom, and dignity.

The Casablanca Committee for Solidarity with Political Detainees condemned, in a statement entitled “Freedom of Expression is a Right, Not a Crime”, the harassment of free media voices in Morocco by those who are bothered by expressing solidarity with political detainees and countering corruption and tyranny in the country.

In this context, the committee cited the “malicious defamation” campaign that the editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Al-Hayat, journalist Loubna al-Falah, is being subjected to by some lobbying platforms because of her writings opposing the policies of the Makhzen regime and her principled solidarity with all victims of the Makhzen prosecutions.

For his part, the Moroccan human rights activist and opposition figure, Mohamed Kandil, denounced in a post on social media the arbitrary arrests that Moroccans are being subjected to because of their criticism of the current catastrophic situation, denouncing the human rights backlash that the country is experiencing.

In this context, he condemned the arrest of Moroccan citizen, Jalali Rachida, sister of former political prisoner, Jalali Hichame, from the city of Khouribga on January 8, 2025, by the judicial police in Casablanca, for sharing a photo circulated by thousands of Moroccans, which sums up the fragile living situation of the Moroccans. She was sentenced to two years in prison on January 31, 2025.

The same human rights activist also condemned the “hateful Makhzen attack” that the blogger and former political prisoner is being subjected to, and the continuous harassment by the rabid police machine, due to his bold positions in confronting the Makhzen gang and its dirty tools, stressing that “these shameful practices against activists, whether human rights activists, politicians, bloggers or journalists, will only increase our determination, we free people, to expose all the regime’s blatant tricks.”

Mohamed Kandil described what is happening in Morocco and the exploitation of the judicial institution to suppress human rights activists, saying: “What is happening is a very dangerous precedent in the history of the Moroccan judicial authorities, which is experiencing serious imbalances, like the rest of the Makhzen’s tools, whether legislative or executive…”.

At the end of the post, the Moroccan opposition called on all free people in “afflicted Morocco” to support and assist the victims of the Makhzen’s repression. He also called on all human rights organizations to adopt this case to uphold justice and expose all the illegal violations that marred it.

In turn, the Detention Committee of the National Union of Moroccan Students denounced the psychological and physical torture that student Youcef el-Karmassi is being subjected to inside the dungeons of the Makhzen regime, after his arrest on Sunday, February 2, and his referral to the Public Prosecution, which decided to prosecute him while at large, setting February 19 as the first trial session.

It should be noted that several Moroccan human rights organizations have condemned, in successive statements, the “dangerous escalation” in the field of human rights violations in Morocco, warning of the seriousness of the human rights situation that threatens more social and political tension, and calling for unifying ranks to put an end to the human rights violations that affect all areas.

In this context, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights warned of the deterioration of the human rights situation in the Kingdom and the continued attack by the Makhzen on rights and freedoms, denouncing the attack on the association and its activists by the exploited and directed media, using the weapon of defamation and incitement to silence their voices, in a blatant attack on the principle of pluralism and freedom of opinion and expression.

In turn, the Moroccan Human Rights Space called on all human rights organizations and civil society actors to “confront all forms of restrictions on rights and freedoms and to defend and advocate to put an end to the human rights violations that affect all fields and most human rights defenders, journalists and social movement activists.”