Thread by @JimmyGymShoes

@ChefGov_ma @morocco_usa Maati Monjib, is a human rights defender who was arrested December 29, 2020. Security agents in civilian clothes took him by force—and without prior notification— from a restaurant in the capital Rabat to the court of First Instance,

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where he was brought before the prosecutor. The latter referred him to the investigating judge, who, after interrogating him without a lawyer, ordered his pretrial detention.

On October 7, 2020, the prosecutor’s office at the Rabat Court of First Instance, opened an investigation against Maati Monjib for alleged embezzlement & money laundering apparently stemming from the receipt of foreign funds to conduct training workshops for citizen journalists.

Maati Monjib told Amnesty International that this harassment and intimidation are due to a recent radio interview where he criticized the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance for their repression of political opponents as well as his open support of detained

journalists Omar Radi and Suleiman Raissouni. The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation has summoned Maati Monjib more than seven times for interrogation in Casablanca and in Rabat. Four members of his family, with no relation to political activism, were also summoned,

including his 70-year-old sister who has Alzheimer’s and had to travel to Casablanca, hours away from her home, to be interrogated for more than four hours. Maati Monjib denies all accusations against him. Maati Monjib, is a prisoner of conscience detained solely for peacefully

exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association. Morocco should close the open investigations, drop charges against him, recognize the legitimacy of human rights defenders and end the criminalization of foreign funds to pursue their human rights work.

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human rights and to end the criminalization of foreign funds to pursue their human rights work.

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