Moroccan who protested Israel ties given five years in prison

An activist who criticized Morocco’s decision to normalize relations with Israel has been sentenced to five years in prison, a human rights group says.

Abdul Rahman Zankad of Mohammedia, Morocco, was arrested in March after posting on Facebook about the Israel-Hamas war and Morocco’s 2020 decision to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, the Moroccan Space for Human Rights says in a statement.

A court on Monday found him guilty of insulting a constitutional institution and incitement. He was also fined 50,000 Moroccan dirhams ($5,000). The civil liberty advocacy group, which organizes the legal defense of protesters, calls the charges baseless and says the proceedings violated Zankad’s right to a fair trial.

His sentence “only serves to solidify the certainty that we are in a state riddled by authoritarianism and tyranny,” the group says.

Zankad is a member of Morocco’s Al Adl Wal Ihsane, a banned but tolerated Islamist association that has been a driving force behind protests against Israel and for Palestinian groups, including Hamas, since the war in Gaza began.

The protesters have criticized Israel’s allies, including the United States, and chanted demands for the government to “overturn normalization.”

“We condemn this unjust ruling in the strongest terms. It is a continuation of the unjust rulings targeting opponents from Al Adl Wal Ihsane, journalists, and leaders of the Rif Movement,” the Moroccan Space for Human Rights says, referencing a 2016 protest movement whose leaders were later sentenced and imprisoned.