Human Rights Watch reveals the "manual of repressive tactics" that Morocco uses against dissidents

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"

...if they can't find anything, they'll make up accusations against you."

Says Hicham Mansuri, a Moroccan journalist who had to seek political asylum in France after being jailed for 10 months for "adultery."

Economist and human rights activist Fuad Abdelmumni received threats to moderate his criticism of the authorities of the Alawite kingdom.

As he did not keep quiet, his family received secretly recorded videos in which he appeared with his fiancée in intimate positions.

Independent journalist

he was arrested in July 2020 and spent a year in jail awaiting trial on charges of "espionage".

He was sentenced in July 2021, but charges of "indecent assault" and "rape" were added in the meantime.

He is currently still in jail, serving a six-year sentence.

Radi had uncovered widespread corruption in the 'Majzen' (the fabric of the Moroccan regime) in the construction and natural resources sectors.

The list goes on and the NGO for the defense of Human Rights in the world

has put together the crumbs.

His conclusion is that critical voices in Morocco are silenced with strategies that include criminal charges unrelated to freedom of expression.

In the North African country, sex outside of marriage is a crime punishable by jail and a reason for social ridicule, especially for women.

In an investigation that HRW reveals today, the New York-based organization assures that "the Moroccan authorities are using indirect and covert tactics to silence activists and journalists critical of the regime."

HRW has documented a series of practices and techniques that make up

.

Used together, they form an "ecosystem of repression" whose purpose is to silence dissenting voices and prevent further criticism.

"The strategies include unfair trials and long prison sentences for criminal charges unrelated to expression, harassment and smear campaigns in state-related media outlets, and the persecution of family members of dissidents. Voices critical of the state have also been subjected to to video and digital surveillance, and in some cases to intimidation and physical assaults that the police have not properly investigated," the NGO notes in its 129-page report titled "You'll get caught no matter what: Morocco's playbook to suppress dissent.

“You will get caught no matter what” is what Omar Radi himself told the reporting organization during an interview in Rabat in July 2020. HRW has spent two years documenting eight cases of what it calls

, which they involve 12 trials and numerous associated objectives.

He has interviewed 89 people inside and outside the country, including people subjected to police or judicial harassment, their relatives and close friends, human rights defenders, social and political activists, lawyers, journalists and trial witnesses.

An exhaustive job that also includes attending 19 court sessions of various dissidents in Casablanca and Rabat and reviewing hundreds of pages of court files and other official documents,

"Authorities use a playbook of underhanded tactics to crack down on dissent while striving to keep Morocco's image as a rights-respecting country intact," said

"The international community should open its eyes, recognize the crackdown for what it is and demand that it stop immediately."

In the pages of its documented dossier, HRW demonstrates that the Alaouite kingdom exercises an "aggressive" persecution of dissidents that contradicts the image of a "moderate" country that Morocco projects.

The deterioration of the Human Rights situation has reached maximum levels in the last decade of the reign of Mohamed VI, who

.

"Since King Mohamed VI came to the throne of Morocco in 1999, Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of convictions of journalists and activists on charges related to

, in violation of their right to it. These trials continue. In parallel , the authorities have perfected a different approach for the most prominent critics, prosecuting them for crimes unrelated to expression, such as money laundering, espionage, rape, sexual assault, and even human trafficking, "says the NGO .

When the dots connect

Taufik Buachrine, director of the critical newspaper 'Ajbar al Youm', was

which he has always denied.

He was also accused of abuse of power for sexual purposes and rape and human trafficking charges that were finally dismissed by the Casablanca court that tried him.

The newspaper, which had been printed since 2009, had to close in May 2021, denouncing "an economic suffocation triggered by the State."

Journalist

was convicted of having sex outside of marriage with her fiancé and of performing an illegal abortion.

During the interrogations, Raisuni told HRW, the police questioned her about the activities of two of her uncles, recognized dissidents.

"What at first appear to be regular instances of law enforcement and scattered acts of harassment and defamation in the media turn out to be, when the dots are connected, a full-fledged playbook for crushing dissent," he says. Fakih.

"Morocco's international allies should recognize it for what it is, and denounce Morocco for it, loudly and forcefully."

In this perfected scheme of persecution there are smear campaigns involving

.

Just glimpsing that one can be the target of this media spectrum and the possibility of being subjected to "social death" for defamation and personal and professional discredit discourages even the most tempered of activists from speaking out.

As Mansuri describes, "there is an inquisitive climate."

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