Rabat -The First Instance Court in Al Hoceima in northern Morocco sentenced former Hirak Rif activist Rabie El Ablaq to four years in prison.
The court found Al Ablaq guilty of “offending the kingdom’s supreme constitutional institution.”
In addition to his sentence, El Ablaq will pay a fine of MAD 20,000 ($ 2,000).
El Ablaq’s trial started on April 11. The activist’s lawyer Abdelmajid Azaryah rejected the sentence, saying that Al Ablaq was “only expressing his views.”
El Ablaq is one of the Hirak Rif activists, who had been arrested in the Al Hoceima Hirak Rif movement between 2016 and 2018.
A court sentenced El Ablaq to five years in jail for participating in unauthorized protests that erupted in the region to denounce social inequalities.
In 2020, however, Al Ablaq was among the Hirak Rif detainees who benefited from a royal pardon ordered by King Mohammed VI.
