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Rabat – With Morocco facing a wave of allegations for supposedly being a chronic human rights violator, two ex-terror convicts, Ali Aarrass and Mohamed Hajib, have increased their presence on social media to accuse Morocco of torture and gain support and solidarity from advocacy NGOs.
Ali Aarass, who is the most active of the two, has deftly used French his statements and videos to appeal to NGOs and other advocacy groups with a track record of jumping to sweeping conclusions when faced with biased and one-sided narratives condemning Morocco’s “politicized trials” and “targeted arrests.”
Aarass is a Moroccan-Belgian national who joined the Mujahideen movement in Morocco in 1982, an extremist group that has been linked to numerous terror activities and plots.
In a recent video, former Mujahideen member Abderrazak Soumah said the movement aimed to cause a deep legitimacy crisis in Morocco by targeting Moroccan institutions. To do this, Soumah argued, the group decided to “spread chaos in the country by causing explosions.”
Soumah was among the leading members of the Mujahideen movement and had a close relationship with Aarrass.
Spain arrested Aarass along with Mohamed El Bay, another senior profile linked to movements with radical and extremist ideologies.
Read also: Ex-Convicted Terrorists Clash Over Torture Claims in Moroccan Prisons
Morocco accused Aarrass of having links to the Casablanca boombings of May 2003, which killed over 33 bystanders and 12 suicide boombers.
But Moroccan police did not arrest Aarass until 2010, when Spain extradited him back to Morocco under an interpol warrant.
The former terror convict subsequently received a sentence of 15 years, which was later reduced to 12 years.
After his release, Aarass left Morocco and gave a series of interviews in which he scathingly attacked Moroccan security services. He later invested in his social media presence to build on the narrative he had used in interviews.
Claiming that he was never a member of an extremist organization, the ex-convict capitalized on his relative social media visibility to accuse Morocco of framing and torturing him. When he was arrested, Aarass confessed to being an active, senior member of a radical movement that sought to stir both uproar and fear among Moroccans.
In his post-prison allegations and rants, however, the ex-terror convict’s new narrative is that he was never associated with the crimes for which he spent years in prison. His testimony, he now says, was fabricated and force-fed to him by Moroccan security agents who arrested him.
Read also: Former Moroccan Terrorism Convict Discredits Ex Cellmate’s Torture Claims
And so, despite facing serious evidence that contradicts his new narrative, including from his former Mujahideen comrades and cellmates who have decried his “lies” about his past and his prison experience, Aarrass has continued to disparage Moroccan institutions.
Morocco’s prison authority, the institution that has borne the brunt of Aarrass’s relentless defamation campaign, has strongly condemned what it describes as false rumors and unfounded allegations only aimed at sanitizing Aarrass’s troubled past.
In 2015, Aarrass’s lawyer, Christophe Marchand, shared a video with a Belgian news outlet in an apparent bid to support his client’s largely discredited torture claims.
The video featured a tired-looking Aarass in short and with multiple bruises. The “shocking and troubling” video, as the Belgian outlet expectedly put it, immediately went viral online.
For critics, however, the video was yet another shrewd tactic the former terror convict used to attract foreign media attention and solidarity.
But the video was not the first attempt by Aarrass to gain support from NGOs and distract public opinion from the serious terrorism charges he has been associated with.
“The recording in question, by its very content, betrays the bad faith of this detainee and his intention to present himself as a victim of torture, thus deceiving public opinion and harming the image of the DGAPR [Morocco’s General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration],” the Moroccan prison authority told a local outlet in 2015 in response to the allegations.
DGAPR reacted again in July 2020 after Aarras renewed his discredited torture allegations. The body denied all the claims, describing them as “false and unfounded.”
DGAPR also condemned allegations by Aarass’s sister and NGOs “claiming to defend human rights,” saying that the former convict’s claims of torture and mistreatment were subject to an investigation.
The investigation revealed that the allegations are “fallacious and unfounded,” DGAPR said, citing lack of evidence.
In addition, DGAPR accused Aarrass of carrying out hunger strikes to put pressure on the prison administration to end the surveillance and inspection that he was subject to to “prevent the circulation of prohibited substances within the establishment and to preserve its security and that of its detainees.”
With the resurfacing of Aarras’s torture claims in recent weeks, at least three of his former close associates and cellmates have taken to social media to cast a harsh light on what they have described as an disingenious attempt by a former terrorist to rebuild his reputation.
Not only have Aarras’s former colleagues dismissed his torture allegations, they have shared detailed information about his role within the Muhajideen movement.
In denial despite multiple testimonies
Some of the ex-terror convicts have also shared videos to deny they were ever tortured while serving their time in prison.
In one testimony, former Mujahidin member Mohamed Benchouchen said he deeply regretted having adopted extremist ideologies that led him and his other former comrades to lose their future and spend years behind bars.
Benchouchen recently appeared in a video to speak about how his affiliation to the Mujahideen movement led to several issues, including poverty.
The former terrorism convict approved what other former prisoners with close relations with Aarass have long said: That Aarass was the movement’s logistics chief, and that he was the first to smuggle arms into Morocco.
Benchouchen said that Ali Aarass was supplying Mujahideen’s militants with weapons. He added that all the arms that Moroccan security services seized during the arrest of Mujahidin-affiliated suspects were smuggled into the country by Ali Aarass.
Abderrazak Soumah, another member of the extremist movement, has made similar remarks. He also confirmed Aarass’s affiliation with the Mujahidin movement.
Soumah has appeared in a couple of videos to narrate his experience and reject Aarass’s attempts to “lie” about his terrorism past and shirk responsibility.
In a video in March, Soumah said Aarrass was the first to bring weapons illegally into Morocco in 2003. He revealed that Aarrass smuggled arms through Berkane, northeastern Morocco.
“Aarrass was in charge of arming the movement with other guns,” he said. “Within the group, he was the one who was responsible for the weapons.”
Soumah said Aarrass had military knowledge since he was part of the army in Belgium.
“He knew weapons very well,” said Soumah.
Read also: Brawl Between Moroccan Ex-Terror Convicts Continues Over Torture Allegations
One of Aarrass’s chief claims is that he does not understand Arabic or Darija and that he was unable to respond to questions during his interrogation by the Moroccan police. In fact, the former convict has repeatedly used this argument to support his thesis that he was forced – and tortured – to sign a confession he could not read or understand.
But Soumah shattered this claim, saying that Aarrass is “very fluent in Arabic.” “We met several times in France, Morocco, and Spain. and we always spoke in Arabic. He speaks good Arabic,” he said.
In March, the Moroccan embassy in Belgium issued a press release to deny all allegations from Ali Aarass.
The embassy accused Aarass of creating a “diversion” while there was proof showing his involvement in plotting terror attacks in Morocco.
“He victimizes himself, while his allegations of torture have been dismantled by courts,” the embassy said.
