Moroccan Authorities Refute Allegations in AI’s Latest Report and Urge It To Back-up Its Content with Evidence

PERSISMA, Rabat – The Moroccan public authorities have categorically refuted the allegations made in the latest report by Amnesty International (AI), calling on the body to provide evidence to back up its content.

The public authorities said, in a press release, that they received, on Friday, Mohamed Sektaoui, executive director of AI in Morocco and expressed their surprise at the allegations contained in the last report by this organization, dated June 22, 2020, mentioning contacts with the Moroccan authorities before its publication.

Denying having been contacted by Amnesty, the authorities stressed that the publication of this report and the mobilization of 17 news outlets around the world to run unfounded allegations are part of an agenda targeting Morocco, part of which is related to circles harboring hatred towards the Kingdom, while others are part of a logic of competition between economic groups on the marketing of equipment used in intelligence, underlined the press release.

During this meeting, it was brought to the attention of the Executive Director of AI that the said report did not provide tangible evidence on the alleged link of Morocco with the infiltration of certain people’s telephones, thus proving that the authors of the report have no tangible evidence to corroborate these allegations, the same source added, noting that this is a conviction of the Moroccan public authorities since the publication of Amnesty’s previous report in October 2019.

Consequently, the statement went on, the Moroccan authorities demanded that the Executive Director of Amnesty International provide them, as soon as possible, with the alleged tangible evidence, in order to allow Morocco to do what is necessary to protect the rights of its citizens. 

Pending a detailed official response, the Moroccan authorities point out that after the suspension, for several years, of cooperation with this organization, they have not noticed any change in its approach which could distance it from the deviations that run counter the rules of defending human rights in their universal dimension, away from the calculations of lobbies and pressure groups out of phase with the protection of these rights.