Rabat – Abdessadek Bouchtaoui, lawyer of the long-detained Hirak Rif activists, was sentenced by Al Hoceima’s court of Appeal, Moroccan newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum has reported.
The court pronounced its verdict against El Bouchtaoui, charging him with “insulting officials and representatives of the authority while on duty” and “threatening public bodies.”
The court has also accused El Bouchtaoui of “inciting activists to commit crimes” and to organize “unauthorized protests.”
The news was also confirmed in a Facebook post by Mohamed Aghnaj, a member of the defense committee.
The court has also announced verdicts ranging from five to 20 years imprisonment against seven activists for their involvement in unauthorized protests in the Rif.
Two of the seven detained activists were sentenced to 20 years in prison for setting fire to police residences, and for using violence against law enforcement, reported Spanish news agency, EFE.
On January 16, Casablanca’s Court of Appeals sentenced seventeen protesters to prison terms ranging from 10 months to 3 years after their involvement in “unauthorized demonstration and disobedience.”
Approximately 400 Hirak activists were arrested in a crackdown on protests held in Al Hoceima province between 2016 and 2017 following the death of Mouhcine Fikri, a local fishmonger who was crushed to death in a garbage truck.
The incident resulted in many protests in the Al Hoceima region. Chanting political slogans, the protesters decried social disparities in the region. In response to the Rif demonstrations, King Mohammed VI tasked Driss Jettou, First President of the Court of Auditors to present him with a report regarding royal development projects that have long been delayed in the region.
