Moroccan journalist Souleiman Raissouni is in jail for more than a year now, waiting for a trial. He started a hunger strike almost 7 weeks ago and his life is in danger.
Here you can read the content
of his writings. Writing a critical comment like this can send you to jail in
Morocco. There is no doubt he is punished for his critical writings, although the authorities say he commited a sexual offense.
Read it and judge yourself. Many
political leaders in the West would be glad if their critics would be so mild.
The disappearance of the
reports of Hammouchi and Abdel Nabaoui
Without any prior or
subsequent notice, the reports of the General Directorate of National Security,
that it was submitting regularly, disappeared from its security operations to
impose the state of emergency, and with it also disappeared the figures that
were reaching us, first-hand, about the number of people arrested, and the
number of persons who were put in custody to be referred to the Public
Prosecution.
Subsequently, after days, the
Public Prosecution Report disappeared, and we remained without figures on the
number of people who were subjected to judicial prosecution, as well as the
percentage of those referred to the court in the after arrest, and of those prosecuted
without custody. Suddenly, these reports disappeared, without us knowing the
reason, and without asking one of the bodies that are obligated to inquire
about their disappearance (It came in the name of Allah .. It did not come, thanks
to Allah).
In the absence of
clarification of the two concerned authorities, let us raise the possibility
that there is a factor, even if it is not the unique, that led to stopping
these reports. It certainly was among the most important factors that made the
administrations of Hammouchi and Abdel Nabaoui say: "How much do we solve by
just stopping it." That factor is represented by the fact that the number
of prosecuted persons exceeded the number of persons tested for COVID.
How? In its last statement,
the Presidency of the Public Prosecution Office announced that the Public Prosecution
Offices of the Kingdom's courts have initiated judicial prosecution of a total
of 65,352 people who violated the regulations of the state of health emergency,
since the entry into force of the aforementioned decree-law until Friday 08 May
2020 at 4:00 p.m. On the other hand, the number of people who underwent Corona tests
did not exceed 63,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University statistics, which
are approved globally.
Some may ask: Is it the fault
of the security authorities and the Public Prosecution Office, if the number of
cases that violated the law and required prosecution exceeds the number of laboratory
tests? Their fault, after being the authority that ordered the implementation
of the decree ruling the state of health emergency before being presented to
Parliament, lies in enforcing a law which is in contradiction to the spirit of truth
and law. At a time when Sisi’s Egypt suffices in fining those who have been caught
without wearing a mask, so without arresting them, the Moroccan authorities, who
are, in terms of human rights, light years ahead of Sisi’s Egypt, arrest many
of those who go out without a mask. In doing this, the Moroccan authorities are
completely ignoring the appeal of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet who called on governments to stop violating
human rights under the pretext of the exceptional and emergency measures applied
to confront the spread of the Coronavirus, and she said: “In some countries,
thousands of people are arrested for violating the curfew, and this is an
unnecessary and unsafe practice. Prisons and detention centers are extremely
dangerous environments, and states should seek the release of those who can be
safely released, and not detain more people."
The biggest self-imposed obstacle
that our public prosecution suffers from, while it is required to protect the
public interest, including public health, is that it often reduces itself to
being a mere indictment authority. Even if the public prosecution office sees
that the number of prosecuted persons exceeds the number of persons tested for
Corona, it does not assess the fact that completion of a corona analysis for
one person may not exceed 15 minutes, between taking the sample and obtaining
the result from the test device, and this may be done by one person, while the prosecution
of a person violating the quarantine regulations requires several working days,
and it requires the intervention of several law enforcement officials, starting
with the provision of at least two policemen to arrest the person accused of breaking
the quarantine regulations, then the judicial police officer who will compose
the report, as well as a number of security personnel in charge of detention on
remand, in addition to the king’s attorney or his deputy before whom the person
accused of breaking the quarantine regulations will be brought.
In case it is decided to prosecute
him while held in custody, this will require several working days of the judge
who will look into his case, of the registrar to record everything that happens
during the sessions, as well as a number of court employees who will perform
the administrative work related to the file, in addition to the lawyer who will
represent him. When the accused is convicted and sent to prison, this
institution will become more overcrowded, while there has already been a
tremendous increase in the number of prisoners, and this may lead to additional
burdens being added to the General Delegate of Prison Administration, who will
have to issue statements to respond to human rights organizations that will
denounce Morocco's lack of respect for the UN resolutions calling for restraint
in imprisoning people, and which call on Morocco to follow the example of most
countries in the world that have enacted legislation punishing the breach of
quarantine with a fine only.
Based on this quick comparison
in terms of the effort exerted by the public authorities to discourage quarantine
violations, and the effort for corona detection tests, of which the World
Health Organization promotes the expansion, in order to include the largest
possible number of people, it can be noticed that the effort exerted to ban
quarantine violations exceeds the effort exerted in carrying out Corona
detection tests, which is, according to the World Health Organization, the most
important measure to prevent Corona, in addition to rational health quarantine regulations
of course.
However, up to now, there is
no single person who has stated that the increase of restraining prosecutions
contributes to the prevention of Corona, it may even lead to the opposite,
especially if the prosecutions take place while the accused are held in custody.
Is this the reason that led to the coverup of the reports of Hammouchi and Abdel
Nabaoui? Even if it is not the direct cause, it must be the reason for pushing
Parliament to review the requirements of the Emergency Decree and stripping it of
the custodial penalty and defining a fine as a sufficient penalty. It should
also be the reason for the security forces and the Public Prosecution Office not
to resort to arrest and prosecution except in the most extreme cases.
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The original Arabic version of this article can be found here:
https://www.maghress.com/alyaoum24/1417799
More translations will follow in the coming days.
Website: freeraissouni.com
Translated with help of Google Translate and edited by me. English is not my mother tongue.
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