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The modus operandi is well established and systematic. Moroccan power “crush all opposition” through the methodical application of a “real manual” of “indirect and underhanded techniques” while striving to preserve its image as “moderate and rights-respecting country”, details the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report published Thursday, July 28. The survey, based on interviews with nearly 90 people and the analysis of 12 trials involving eight journalists or intellectuals, is the first major research on the methodology used by the Rabat regime over the past ten years to “muzzling critical voices” and “scare all potential critics of the state”.
Behind the apparently scattered files of journalists Omar Radi, Hicham Mansouri, Soulaiman Raissouni, Hajar Raissouni and Taoufik Bouachrine, human rights activists Maati Monjib and Fouad Abdelmoumni or lawyer Mohamed Ziane, the same processes of police surveillance, of media intimidation and judicial harassment are at work, deciphers the report entitled “ “One way or another, they will get you”: handbook of techniques of repression in Morocco”. This ” series of techniques (…) used in combination forms an ecosystem of repression”sums up the HRW report.
Sexual assault cases aim to hide behind the ‘MeToo’ wave
If bringing opponents into line has a very old history in Morocco, it took on an unprecedented form from the mid-2010s, notes the report, with the attribution to these dissident voices of “ crimes other than expression” : adultery, rape and sexual assault, espionage, money laundering and even human trafficking. The underlying idea is to avoid as much as possible trials that are too overtly political – likely to heroize the people prosecuted – by lowering them to the vile rank of crook, depraved or rapist. Sexual assault cases are particularly aimed at hiding behind the international wave of “MeToo” to better render defendants indefensible.
Hidden cameras
As for cases of adultery or sex outside marriage, the objective is to sully honor in a very conservative Moroccan society. “In Morocco, they say that reputation is glass, declared in April 2021 to World historian Maati Monjib, prosecuted for “undermining state security” and “fraud”. When it breaks, it doesn’t stick together. People fear defamation more than prison. »
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