Rabat – Prominent Hirak activist Nasser Zefzafi has started another hunger strike after the Casablanca Court of Appeals upheld the heavy sentences on all Hirak activists on Friday, April 5. The activists are serving sentences ranging from 1 to 20 years.
Ahmed Zefzafi, Nasser’s father, announced on Monday that he received a message from his son announcing he had sewn his lips.
“Having this battle (stitching the lips) resulted from my faith in my right to freedom and rejection of the militarization and assassination and abduction of children and Riffians.”
Zefzafi, who is serving 20 years, added that he decided to go on hunger strike to condemn the refusal of the prison administration to give him his medical file.
Mohammed El Haki, a Hirak activist who received 15 years in prison, also stitched his lips to go on a hunger strike.
On Friday, April 5, Casablanca’s Court of Appeals upheld the heavy sentences handed down by a Casablanca court against 54 Hirak activists in June 2018.
The court’s ruling received backlash on social media from people who have been demanding the release of all Hirak activists. The government imprisoned the activists after they participated in unauthorized protests.
In addition to Zefzafi, three other Hirak activists received 20 years in prison.
The court’s ruling resulted in protests in the northern city of Al Hoceima, where the Hirak protests broke out in 2016 and 2017. At the time, protesters condemned social disparities and the death of Mohcine Fikri, a fishmonger who was crushed in a garbage truck in 2016 while he was trying to retrieve confiscated goods.
Zefzafi, along with other Hirak activists, has gone on several hunger strikes throughout his imprisonment to condemn alleged torture and mistreatment in the prison.
