On Wednesday, August 2, AFP reported that a court in Casablanca, Morocco, sentenced a man to five years in prison on Monday over his social media post criticizing the country’s decision to normalize ties with Israel.
The court found a Facebook post by Said Boukioud (48) critical of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, his lawyer El Hassan Essouni told AFP. The post was written in December 2020 when Boukioud was working in Qatar. He later deleted the post and closed his account.
Essouni criticized the judgment as “harsh and incomprehensible” and said he had filed an appeal against it in higher courts.
Morocco’s foreign policy is the prerogative of the King and any kind of criticism of him is punishable by a prison term of between six months and two years under the law. Public criticism using online platforms invites a longer prison sentence of five years.
The law has been criticized by human rights activists and left groups in the country as against the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. They claim that the vagueness of the provisions of the law, with no clear definition of what constitutes “undermining monarchy,” leads to its wide misuse by state authorities to suppress voices of dissent.
Morocco, as part of the Arab League, had vowed to not establish relations with Israel until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. However, after some members of the League—the UAE and Bahrain—went ahead and normalized relations with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords pushed by the US, Morocco also signed the deal in December 2020, despite strong popular opposition.
In exchange, Morocco received certain diplomatic concessions from the US like recognition of its sovereignty over Western Sahara, where a popular struggle has been going on against its occupation since 1970.
Israel also recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara last month.
