2023-07-06 14:11:20
Moroccan historian and political scientist Maâti Monjib is due to appear on appeal on Thursday July 6 after being sentenced for “undermining state security”. His trial has already been postponed many times.
Born in 1962, Maâti Monjib is an intellectual, teacher and tireless human rights activist in Morocco. Doctor in political history of Morocco, he is also the author of articles and critical works on the monarchy, despotism and corruption (1).
His positions earned him exile under the reign of King Hassan II. Back in the Cherifian kingdom, he continues his fights. He is the founder of the Ibn Rochd Center for Studies and Research, the president of the Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism and of Freedom Now (a committee for the defense of freedom of the press and expression in Morocco created in 2014 ).
A critical voice
Considered one of the most fervent critics of the regime, Maâti Monjib has been the subject of incessant legal and police proceedings since 2015. In October, he began his first hunger strike to protest against the Moroccan authorities who refuse to let him leave the territory to go to international conferences.
In November of the same year, he was prosecuted, along with six other journalists and human rights activists, for “undermining state security” and forbidden to leave the territory. This accusation is denounced as a pretext by associations for the defense of human rights, such as the Committee for the Protection of Journalists or Amnesty International, as well as by the European Parliament.
In December 2020, Maâti Monjib was arrested in Rabat for “money laundering and fraud” and remanded in custody. The Moroccan authorities accuse the intellectual of having misused funds received from international NGOs. After a new hunger strike and intense international mobilization, he was released on parole on March 23, 2021.
While imprisoned, he was sentenced in abstentia in the prosecution for “undermining state security” to one year in prison on January 27, 2021. Even his lawyers were unaware of his trial. It is this sentence which he appealed which must be examined Thursday, July 6 by the Moroccan justice.
New controversies
The harassment doesn’t stop there. On March 10, the 61-year-old historian announced that he had been notified ten days earlier of his suspension. ” until further notice “ from his position as professor at the Institute of African Studies, affiliated with the Mohammed V University of Rabat. He denounces a measure “illegal” aiming to “sow terror and intimidate” critical teachers of power.
“He is banned from teaching at the University of Rabat, his professor’s salary has been suspended, his bank account frozen, he lives only thanks to the support of his relatives”, denounced his lawyer in La Croix in March 2023. “He has been banned from traveling for two years and is therefore prevented from seeing his wife and daughter in France”.
An article published Monday, July 3 in the Moroccan daily as-Sabah reporting that Maâti Monjib did not condemn the burning of the Koran in the name of ” freedom of expression “ sparked a new controversy in Morocco. “He considers insulting the word of God to be a matter of freedom of expression, hoping to win the approval of Europe”tance l’article d’as-Sabahwho accuses him of being a “executioner of his country and of Islam”.
The information was taken up by all of the Moroccan press, which denounced its “ravings”ses « hallucinations » and is ironic about “enlightened design” intellectual freedom. What bring water to the mill of his detractors at the time of his appeal trial.
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