Rabat – Moroccan police have arrested two suspects for their involvement in the physical assault of a cleaning man in the city of Tangier.
The suspects harassed the man after he asked them to wait a “few minutes” to let him pick up trash where they were standing.
A video of the man shows him lying on the ground with blood covering his face. The footage as gone viral on social media, angering Moroccans.
“I asked them to wait because I should have moved the trash from the road. They started insulting me and my colleagues. They called us trashy people,” he said.
The man added that one of the suspects got out of the vehicle holding a knife and slashed him in the cheek.
The second suspect also assaulted the cleaning man with an iron stick, hitting him in the head.
The cleaning man called on Tangier authorities to protect him and his colleagues because the incident is not the first of its kind.
“They hurt my dignity. If security services are not active, I am sure the situation will get worse.”
Moroccan police in Tangier arrested the two suspects within 48 hours.
The General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) said in its 2019 annual report that it handled 639,116 criminal cases in 2019 and arrested 644,025 people, including 43,008 women and 23,746 minors.
The report shows “relative stability in the percentage of [resolved] criminal cases of around 90.4%,” a result of “the systematic pillars of scientific and technical police.”
Violent crimes saw a significant decrease of 8.6% compared to last year.
Fatal assault decreased by 11.2%, indecent assault by 10.2%, theft by 3.4%, armed robbery by 21%, and vehicle theft by 7.8%, DGSN noted.
