“Spain will be constantly in tension with Morocco. » Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero has been a persistent pebble in Morocco’s footwear for over a decade. He has the art of playing spoilsport while Rabat dressed in its finery to receive the imposing Spanish delegation of the head of government, made up of a dozen ministers, for the holding of a summit described as historic between the two States on Wednesday February 1 and Thursday February 2.
But in the background, the Cherifian kingdom is sparing no effort, including through lawsuits, to silence the journalist specializing in Morocco, whom the latter covered for fifteen years for the daily The countrythen for The worldbefore continuing its investigations on the site The confidential. Nothing works.
The break between Ignacio Cembrero and le Maroc in 2011
The story had started well between Morocco and Ignacio Cembrero, during the first years of the reign of Mohammed VI. The king himself had even authorized him in 2008 to produce a report along the border with Algeria, in this de facto forbidden zone.
The rupture will be consummated from 2011, when the journalist covered at the end of 2010 the protest, very severely repressed, of approximately 20,000 Sahrawis gathered in the camp of Gdeim Izik in Western Sahara. Then when he began to report the problems of governance linked to the very long absences of the king, who was able to travel and stay for weeks or even months, particularly in France.
Judicial harassment
In 2014, the then Moroccan Prime Minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, filed a complaint against him in Spain for apologizing for terrorism after Ignacio Cembrero published on his blog hosted by The country a video of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb dedicated to Morocco. “At the time, several newspapers had spoken about it”, says the journalist.
The case will be closed twice without action, first by the Attorney General of the State, then by the judge of the National Audience, this Spanish court reserved for crimes and cases of the highest importance. “The Moroccan pressures did not stop however, The country then asks me to choose another specialty”, he continues. The journalist prefers to slam the door.
This will not put an end to judicial harassment by the Moroccan kingdom as denounced in 2015 by the Madrid press association. That year, Ignacio Cembrero won his lawsuit for defamation brought by Ahmed Charaï, a press boss close to Mohammed VI, whom he had called a“spy” after his links to Moroccan intelligence were exposed through leaked secret service documents and diplomatic cables.
Victim of having his phone hacked by Pegasus spyware
At 68, the journalist once again finds himself in court. Based on a medieval provision that has fallen into disuse in Spanish legislation, Rabat accuses the journalist of being guilty of a “bragging act”that is to say to boast of having been spied on by the Pegasus software – like many journalists and leaders of several countries, including Emmanuel Macron – without being able to provide proof.
“I only know that exchanges I had on WhatsApp with certain members of the Spanish government, at a time of great tension between Madrid and Rabat, were published in Diplomatic Morocco by a journalist close to the palace”, he explains. The hearing took place on January 13, the verdict is expected in the days or weeks to come.
“It’s a pity that the resolution of the European Parliament was adopted after my trial”, he regrets. On January 19, MEPs asked the Moroccan authorities to “respect freedom of expression and freedom of the media”, claimed “the end of the harassment of all journalists in the country” and ensuring fair trials for imprisoned journalists.