The Moroccan authorities have arrested this Monday the critical Moroccan ex-minister of Human Rights Mohamed Ziane and have been transferred to prison to serve his three-year sentence on 11 charges, including “insulting institutions” and “sexual harassment”, confirmed by a Rabat court.
A police source informed efe that Ziane (79 years old), who was initially released on probation, witnessed the verdict on Monday in the Court of Appeal of the Moroccan capital, after which he was arrested in the courtroom in accordance with an order issued by the court.
After his arrest, the former ministerpracticing lawyer, was transferred to El Arjat II prisonlocated on the outskirts of Rabat.
In recent months, Ziane has harshly criticized the Moroccan state, the Maghreb country’s monarchy (going so far as to call for Mohamed VI’s abdication) and security institutions.
the former minister He was sentenced last February to 3 years in prison by a court of first instance in Rabat for “contempt of judicial decisions” and “spreading false information to defam people through electronic means,” among others.
On the 14th, Ziane denounced that the Moroccan authorities prohibited her from leaving the country at the airport, a prohibition that, according to legal sources consulted by eferesponded to a judicial precautionary measure for the investigations that were open.
This Monday’s sentence comes after Ziane published a video on social networks at the end of last September in which criticized “the absence of King Mohamed VI” of Morocco and called for the monarch’s abdication for his son, 19-year-old Crown Prince Muley Hassan.
Days later, the lawyer again directed the same criticism of the monarch in an interview with the digital media The Independent.
Recently, Human Rights Watch denounced the “tactics” of the Moroccan authorities to silence dissidents in the Maghreb country, including prison sentences for various crimes such as those related to sexual harassment or abuse.
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