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Rabat – The General Directorate for National Security (DGSN) has reiterated its position regarding the disruption of the the Istiqlal party’s affiliated labor union, saying it was a “mere application of the law”.
DGSN issued a statement on Thursday reasoning the use of police forces on Sunday to disrupt an extraordinary congress held by the pro-Hamid Chabat wing of the General Union of Moroccan Workers (UGTM).
A court decision, issued two days before, declared the meeting “illegal”, something Chabat and his supporters refused to accept.
The Moroccan police agency said police intervention was to enforce the court’s decision and rejected claims by Chabat and his followers it was politically motivated. “The General Directorate for National Security treated the issue from a purely legal and judicial aspect”, said DGSN. The agency added that as a body in charge of law application, it has no political unionist motivations.
Chabat, the contested leader of Istiqlal, sought election as UGTM’s Secretary General amidst mounting pressure on him within the party.
However, he had been facing opposition within the labor union itself. Members of the union who are opposed to Chabat succeeded in ousting the former union leader loyal to him, Kafi Cherrat.
The leader of Istiqlal is highly likely to lose his bid for another term as the party’s Secretary General. Chabat has lost the support of influential members within the party’s highest body, the Executive Committee, who declared that he was unfit for leadership. Since losing his grip on both the party and the labor union in recent months, his political career has been severely damaged.
Chabat is desperately trying to get himself re-elected as leader of either of the two, but as recent events have shown, he is most likely to fail.
His political troubles are coupled with previous allegations of one his sons being involved in drug trafficking, and media reports about the questionable origins of Chabat and his family’s colossal fortune.
Given his sons have no higher education and have had almost no professional careers, the origin of his and his children’s estate, which includes dozens of farms and real estate properties and bank accounts both inside Morocco and abroad, is puzzling.
