![]() Bouachrine was later sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2019 on multiple accounts of sexual assault Bernani has fled into exile. Bernani strongly denied ever making such an accusation. In one case, a court convicted Afaf Bernani of “defaming the police,” after she accused them of forging a statement in which she appeared to affirm to being sexually assaulted by her former boss, Taoufik Bouachrine, editor of the last critical daily print newspaper in Morocco. In their aggressive pursuit of dissidents, including on serious charges, the authorities have violated the rights of their acquaintances, partners, families, and even people the authorities allege to be their victims. Procedural problems included pretrial detention without individualized justification, denying defendants access to their case files for protracted periods, rejecting defense motions to hear and cross-examine materially relevant witnesses, and sentencing jailed defendants in their absence after police failed to take them to court. In the trials examined, Human Rights Watch found that dissidents, their relatives, or their associates were convicted based either on charges that by their very nature violated internationally recognized human rights or, when the charges were legitimate, on unfair proceedings that violated numerous fair trial guarantees. The report assesses whether the trial process in such cases respected international standards governing the right to fair proceedings. Such serious criminal allegations should be investigated without discrimination, and those responsible should be brought to justice in trials that respect due process and are fair for all parties, Human Rights Watch said. Alongside them, authorities have refined a different approach for prominent critics, prosecuting them for nonspeech crimes, such as money laundering, espionage, rape and sexual assault, and even human trafficking. Since King Mohammed VI ascended to the throne of Morocco in 1999, Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of convictions of journalists and activists on speech-related charges, in violation of their right to freedom of expression. Human Rights Watch also attended 19 trial sessions of various dissidents in Casablanca and Rabat, reviewed hundreds of pages of judicial case files and other official documents, and closely monitored state-aligned media for over two years. For that, it interviewed 89 people inside and outside of Morocco, including people subjected to police or judicial harassment, their family members and close friends, human rights defenders, social and political activists, lawyers, journalists, and trial witnesses. Human Rights Watch documented 8 cases of multifaceted repression, involving 12 trials and multiple associated targets. “The international community should open its eyes, see the repression for what it is, and demand that it stops.” “Authorities use a playbook of underhanded tactics to repress dissenters while striving to keep intact Morocco’s image as a rights-respecting country,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Critics of the state were also subjected to video and digital surveillance, and in some cases to physical intimidation and assault that the police failed to investigate properly. The tactics include unfair trials and long prison terms for nonspeech criminal charges, harassment and smear campaigns in state-aligned media, and targeting dissidents’ relatives. In the 129-page report, “ They’ll Get You No Matter What: Morocco’s Playbook to Crush Dissent,” Human Rights Watch documents a range of tactics that, when used together, form an ecosystem of repression, aiming not only to muzzle dissenting voices but to scare off all potential critics. ![]() The moves aim to preserve Morocco’s coveted image as a “moderate,” rights-respecting country while it grows ever-more repressive. ![]() (New York) – Moroccan authorities are using indirect and underhanded tactics to silence critical activists and journalists, Human Rights Watch said in a report published today.
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