Rabat- The Youth wing of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has responded to some of its members' hunger strike, saying it is following them “with great concern” and criticizing their detention.
Rabat- The Youth wing of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has responded to some of its members’ hunger strike, saying it is following them “with great concern” and criticizing their detention.
The strike was started as a reaction to an investigating judge’s decision to detain them under allegations that they had praised terrorism.
Members of the PJD’s Youth were arrested in late December over Facebook posts deemed to have praised the assassination of Russian ambassador to Turkey by a Turkish police officer.
The Islamist party’s Youth wing described the judge’s decision as a “human rights setback threatening freedom of expression” and a “deterrent to young people” interested in politics.
“PJD’s Youth has been, and will always remain, a place where younger generations learn the values of moderation that our religion advocates,” the statement read.
The statement expressed the Youth wing’s rejection of all allegations against its members, adding that its adherents will always remain faithful to the nation’s precepts and values.
“We totally reject any implicit accusation of PJD’s Youth of extremism,” added the statement.
A call was issued to Moroccan authorities to reconsider what the organization called an “overly security-minded” process, warning it “would only scare young people away from actively taking part in building up a democracy that would provide Moroccans with a sense of safety.”
