Denver – Morocco’s General Delegate for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR) has refuted accusations of mistreatment from a French-Algerian inmate at the Oudayas local prison in Marrakech.
The French-Algerian “comedian” Brahim Bouhlel went viral earlier this year after a video circulated of him degrading and verbally abusing Moroccan women and children alongside several other internet personalities.
Authorities sentenced Bouhlel and his companion, Moroccan-born social media influencer Zbarbooking, to eight months and one year in prison respectively for their comments.
Since his imprisonment, Bouhlel’s French lawyer has repeatedly accused prison authorities of denying the comedian access to adequate phone services and subjecting him to substandard conditions. DGAPR officials have denied all the accusations, stating that Bouhlel has been given phone access and living conditions on par with other inmates in the prison.
Officials also highlighted a recent call with the French consulate during which consular officials commended “the administration’s dealings with [Bouhlel] and with other prisoners of French nationality.”
DGAPR officials concluded their statement by accusing French media who have published Bouhlel’s lawyer’s allegations of spearheading or facilitating a “continued harassment” of Morocco’s judicial and prison authorities.
They also drew attention to the questionable nature of French prisons in comparison to Morocco’s.
“[French media] generalized these fallacies to the rest of the prison institutions and promoted this to the public opinion, while they overlooked the miserable conditions of detention in French prisons and the degrading treatment of inmates, as was previously reported by the European Court of Human Rights on January 30, 2020.”
