The arrest of former minister Mohamed Ziane demonstrates the seamless power of the Moroccan regime
Police officers raided Mohamed Ziane’s office last Monday and, without legally notifying him of an arrest warrant, arrested him and took him to Arjat Prison, on the outskirts of Rabat, the Moroccan capital. The former human rights minister and founder of the Liberal Party, in the opposition, had asked King Mohamed VI to abdicate in favor of his son, Crown Prince Mulay Hassan, due to his long stay, through a video posted on social networks. abroad and consequently for ignoring the affairs of the kingdom.
The lawyer, who was born in Malaga and also has Spanish nationality, had already been prosecuted for 11 offenses and sentenced to three years in prison. The figure of the monarch and the question of the Sahara are boundaries that cannot be crossed in the neighboring country. The regime is in a situation of active defense to prevent any form of aggression against the established order. This intolerance worsened after the Arab Spring, a phenomenon that blew up all the states of North Africa.
Morocco’s position was particularly vulnerable in a context that required substantial changes. Its political structure with a sovereign who shares executive power with the government and is a religious authority, rejected by radical Islamists, a priori seemed an easy target for extremists. The poverty rate, currently 45% of the population, according to official sources, further encourages any uprising.
The opening initiated by the current king at the beginning of the century has been transformed into a repressive attitude that, however, tries to reconcile itself with a very appropriate image of modernity in order to attract investors. Morocco presents itself as a democratic country with a liberalized economy, oblivious to the convulsions of the rest of the Arab world and the African continent. Rabat wants to position itself as a privileged commercial and political partner of the West in an apparently unfavorable environment such as the Maghreb.
Geopolitical reality has become the best ally of these aspirations. The migratory flow, the jihadist threat spreading through the Maghreb and the Sahel have strengthened our friend in the southern Mediterranean. His aces are too important to ignore and he knows how to play them internationally.
The successes happened with such good letters. The Trump administration recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, a position followed by Arab countries prone to the position of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and against Iran. La Moncloa’s support for the claims of autonomy across the Sahara was a new accolade.
The war in Ukraine finally squares the circle. Algeria and Russia will today conclude joint military operations dubbed ‘Desert Shield 2022’ with a perceived anti-terrorist goal. NATO’s concern is that these maneuvers reveal Moscow’s initiative on the African continent. Let us not forget that Putin already has special relevance in countries such as Mali and the Central African Republic, and has received the greatest regional support for his bellicose policies.
Internal dissension has been the main victim of this context, which has been so favorable to pro-government positions and especially to the Majzen or the local oligarchy. Human rights defenders, the most critical media and pro-Sahrawi activists have been targets of persecution over the past decade. Now the method has changed because appearance is important nowadays.
Freedom of expression is not directly threatened, there are other ways to ruin the suspect’s reputation and imprison him. The NGO Human Rights Watch has published a report titled, in Spanish: “They’re going to get you anyway.” This playbook mentions the use of accusations involving sex, violence and even family abuse to build processes that inevitably end up in jail.
Silence accompanied the application of this heavy-handed policy. Six years ago, the popular movement in the Rif led to more than 500 arrests, the militarization of the region and the exile of its promoters. Since then, there have been numerous arrests related to this method of intimidation.
The journalist Hajar Raissouni, linked to a critical outlet, was sentenced to one year in prison for having sexual relations outside of marriage and performing an illegal abortion. These kinds of accusations have a great impact on society, which is still very conservative.
Ziane’s imprisonment is another story in this rosary. The gag does not transcend. Spain and the European Union need the cooperation of the Maghrebi authorities to prevent emigration from spiraling out of control, and that permission comes at a price. The situation in Libya also has certain side effects. The rights of the inhabitants, subject to a barbaric civil war, are disappearing due to the need to avoid humanitarian catastrophes on the high seas and images of corpses adrift. Morocco has the initiative. You have to look the other way.
Source: La Verdad
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