Mohammed Zian feels that he has “judged himself because of his opinions”. Moroccan counterpart, former president Rabat The minister for human rights between 1995 and 1996 was also arrested and jailed on Monday evening after being sentenced on appeal to three years in prison.

“He was transferred to El Arjat prison. He was not even legally notified (of his sentence) and he never appeared,” lamented Ali Reda Sian, his lawyer and advocate for his father. The prosecution confirmed that the person concerned was arrested and jailed to enforce the provisions of the appeal decision on the instructions of the public prosecutor.

A lawyer in favor of the “Hirak” movement

Shortly before his arrest, he said he had never received a summons to appear. His son denounced “a gear against [s]Because he took a favorable stand for his father “Hirak” you riff “, a powerful social movement that shook this mountainous Berber region in 2016-2017. Celebrity lawyer Mohammad Zian, 79, defended opposition media chief Tawfiq Bowakr, who has been in prison since 2018 after serving 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting eight women. .

According to a complaint from the Ministry of Interior, the lawyer was prosecuted on eleven counts, including “insult against a constituted entity”, “defamation”, “adultery” or “sexual harassment”. On February 23, he was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 5,000 dirhams (€470), but was released.

Criticism of intelligence agencies

The Moroccan Committee to Support Prisoners of Conscience said it was “extremely shocked”. “His appeal was conducted during a hearing, without giving Chairman Siani an opportunity to defend himself”, it criticized. Human rights. “He was arrested by more than twenty plainclothes police officers who burst into his office (…) without presenting a minor judicial decision, a flagrant violation of criminal procedure, the Constitution and international conventions.”

Mohamed Sian, founder of the Moroccan Liberal Party (PML) and a senior civil servant, has made a name for himself through statements critical of the authorities, particularly the Moroccan intelligence services. The former president accused security services of “stealing” a video in a hotel room in November 2020 to show in a compromising manner an interview between him and a married client. At the time, he accused Abdellatif Hammouchi, the head of police and internal intelligence, of being responsible for the manipulation of the images.