Mohamed VI frees 17 Rif political prisoners from Hirak on the occasion of the end of Ramadan party

As is customary on the eve of religious holidays or national commemorations, the King of Morocco Mohammed VI grants a royal pardon to imprisoned prisoners, including convicts on provisional release.

This year and on the occasion of Aid Al Fitr (End of the holy month of Ramadan) the monarch has granted a pardon to 17 Rif political activists who have been imprisoned since the Rif riots of November 2017, when the death of a fish vendor crushed by a garbage truck while trying to recover the merchandise seized by the police in Al Hoceima, caused thousands of Riffians throughout the region to take to the streets to protest and demand policies for economic and social development, the lack of opportunities and against the abandonment to which the Moroccan state has subjected the northern region of the Alaouite kingdom for decades.

It is the fourth time that the monarch has granted royal grace to Rif prisoners since 2017. The 17 who have been released on Wednesday night make up the list of the last political prisoners who were arrested and imprisoned after the revolts of the more than 700 who were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, including several minors. old.

As reported by a spokesman for Hirak (Rif's Popular Movement), among them are not the leaders who led the revolts, including the one who has already resigned from his responsibilities in the movement, Nasser Zefzafi, who, as published by this medium, suffered serious problems of health and that to this day the prison authorities continue without informing his relatives about the true state in which he is after being admitted to a hospital outside the prison last week in Tangier.

In the list of those released that El Mundo has had access to are the following:. From Al Hoceima prison: Hassan Barba (20 years old), Wassim Bousttati (20 years old), Jamal Oueld Abdenbi (5 years old), Mohamed Oueld Abdenbi (2 years old) and the prisoner of the February 20 movement Bachir Ben Chaib (12 years old). From Nador: Mohamed Bouhanouch (5 years old) Bilal Ahabad (10 years old), Abdelhak Fahsi (10 years old), Sahib Akrouh (5 years old), Imad Ahidar, Khalid El Bouahnan, Mohamed Bensaid and Achraf Moudid. In Larache prison, Salah Eddine Etakouti and Younnes Elouai. In Zayou's, Hassan Hajji and Ismael Acharki.

The other prisoners considered leaders of the movement imprisoned in Tangier along with Zefzafi, Mohamed Haki, Mohamed Jalloul, Nabil Ahamjik, Samir Ighid, Zakaria Adahchour, Jawad Amghar have not obtained clemency from the monarch to regain their freedom in this new window of grace that Morocco has open for the end of Ramadan party.

The first pardon that the monarch granted was at the end of July 2017 when the police harshly repressed the street riots in the Rif; The date of 20J being key, which brought thousands of Riffians to the town squares and found the sympathy of thousands of citizens in the big cities of the kingdom who expressed solidarity with the protests in the northern region.

In August 2018 there was another great pardon when 188 prisoners were released but there has never been clemency for the leaders who today remain firm in their convictions that the Moroccan state has to open “a dialogue for amnesty and the end of political persecution that allows exiled people to return with the guarantee of not being arrested or persecuted for their participation in the movement. There are thousands of colleagues who have left everything and have undertaken risky trips to Europe. These people must also return. The demands of the Hirak have to be met. The country deserves it” as expressed by Nasser Zefzafi in an interview with this medium.

A Hirak spokesman acknowledges that the National Human Rights Council had met with the prisoners who have been released on Wednesday night. The release has been dealt with in a negotiation process between the parties with the mediation of the Moroccan human rights body and they hope that the result of this will end in the remaining prisoners, the leadership, being released shortly.

On the occasion of the celebration of Aid Al Fitr, the King of Morocco Mohammed VI has pardoned 810 people, some of them arrested and others released, sentenced by the different courts of the Kingdom, indicates a statement from the Ministry of Justice.

Mohammed VI also granted his royal pardon to 12 detainees convicted of cases of extremism and terrorism who participated in the 7th edition of the “Reconciliation” Program (Musalaha), in response to the pardon requests that these detainees submit to the Sovereign, after having officially announced his rejection of all forms of extremism and terrorism, as well as his firm clinging to the constants and sacredness of the Nation and national institutions, as published in the same statement.

Relatives and activists break the fast on the last day of Ramadan awaiting the release of the Hirak prisoners from Al Hoceima prison