Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Morocco to release dissident historian and rights activist Maati Monjib, who has been in pre-trial detention for a month on money-laundering accusations. “The Moroccan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Maati Monjib and drop all charges against him,” the London-based rights group said.
Monjib, 60, was arrested in late December after the prosecution said it had seized evidence of money transfers and real estate assets beyond the means of Monjib and his family. The historian said at the time that these accusations were “not new” and had already been part of a trial for “financial embezzlement” and “undermining state security” which opened in 2015 but has been repeatedly adjourned. Monjib insists he is innocent.
Free Press Unlimited, which has helped fund Monjib’s rights work, said he “should be acquitted of all charges”. Free Press Unlimited and two other NGOs which made the transfers in question have not complained about Monjib’s management of the funds, his lawyer said. Moroccan and overseas activists and intellectuals have signed a petition calling for the historian’s release. Monjib has yet to be questioned by an investigating judge.
Human Rights Watch noted in its 2021 global rights report that Morocco last year “cracked down harder on social media commentators, artists, and journalists critical of the monarchy.” The government’s own rights commission rejected such accusations as “lies”, and Rabat insists its judiciary is independent.
Amnesty International’s deputy regional director Amna Guellali said the kingdom was on a “relentless quest to curtail Monjib’s right to freedom of expression and bully him into submission”. She urged Moroccan authorities to drop all charges against him and open “a robust, independent and transparent investigation into the unlawful digital surveillance Monjib was subjected to for years”. The rights group in 2019 published a report accusing Rabat of using powerful spying technology to tap opposition activists’ phones. Morocco denies this.
