'Speak, and you'll bleed from the nose': HRW slams trial of Moroccan activist for 'insulting the king'

It seems that Moroccan authorities' policy can be summed up in the Moroccan proverb "speak, and you'll bleed from the nose," said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its latest report on freedom of speech in the Moroccan kingdom.

On Tuesday, the New York-based human rights watchdog called on the Moroccan government to drop the charges against Rabie Al-Ablaq, a Moroccan activist and a key figure in the Hirak Rif protests that erupted in the north of Morocco in 2016. 

Charges against Al-Ablaq are based on two videos the activist posted last year on Facebook and YouTube, in which he addressed the Moroccan king as "Mr Mohamed Alaoui, who occupies the position of King of Morocco." A term that some might consider 'insulting,' in a country where the constitution imposes a "duty of reverence and respect" for the king, who is usually addressed as "his majesty."

يبدو أن سياسة سلطات #المغرب تتلخص في عبارة "دْوي ترعف" أو (تكلّم ينزف أنفك):
قضية جديدة في سلسلة محاكمات من ينتقدون الملك على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي https://t.co/hYUwbWJhMJ pic.twitter.com/r0QErtNlPJ

— هيومن رايتس ووتش (@hrw_ar) April 19, 2022

Al-Ablaq has also said that "the king and the Moroccan Prime minister Akhannouch are both billionaires," and questioned how they obtained their fortunes, asking whether it was a result of "plunder."

The thirty-five-year-old activist will appear before the court on April 25. He may be sentenced to up to five years in jail and fined up to 500.000 MAD (50.924 USD), according to Moroccan Draft Law No. 73.15 and Article 179 of the Moroccan penal code.

"There is no right more fundamental than the right to criticise whoever holds power, even if he is a king. Morocco should stop pursuing critics like Rabie al-Ablaq based on laws that actually sanctify the person of the king," the report quoted Eric Goldstein, deputy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

In 2017, Al-Ablaq was sentenced to five years in prison for "spreading false news" and "usurping the title of journalist," due to his vocal support for Hirak protests on different websites.

He received a royal pardon and was freed in 2020, after conducting several hunger strikes while in prison.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International accused Rabat of using bogus charges to detain activists in a bid to stamp out criticism of authorities, after the arrest of Saida El-Alami, a Moroccan human rights defender and blogger, for "insulting public officials".

El-Alami is set to face court on April 22. Several activists, who have dared to publicly support her, are now facing similar charges. 

"In Morocco, the vibrant independent press of the 2000s is only a distant memory. Now the [Moroccan] authorities' policy seems to be summed up in the Moroccan proverb: Speak, and you'll bleed from the nose," Goldstein said in the report. 

Peaceful criticism of state officials is protected speech under international law, and particularly under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Morocco ratified in 1979.