Three-year jail term for activist accusing top Moroccan civil servants of drugs involvement.
CASABLANCA - The appeal court in Casablanca on Tuesday upheld a three-year jail term against a human rights activist, Chahib Khayari, who had charged that top state employees were involved in a drug network.
Khayari was first sentenced on June 24 for his allegations against civil servants, which were held to be a denigration of state institutions.
Khayari is the chairman of the Human Rights Association in the Rif region (ARDH). He gave press interviews in which he charged that some members of a big drugs trafficking ring at Nador in north Morocco had been able to take up very senior posts in the administration.
The interior ministry dismissed Khayari's allegations as baseless.
Khayari was also sentenced in June on financial charges of depositing money in a foreign bank account without authorization. He was ordered to pay Moroccan customs a fine of 750,000 dirhams (about 66,000 euros / 98,000 dollars).
The fine was upheld by the appeal court, though defense lawyers said that Khayari only had 220 euros in a bank account in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, not 7,500 as reported by police.
The Nador ring was dismantled by police on January 13 and about 100 people were arrested and then prosecuted in Casablanca.
Numerous employees of the security forces were among those arrested. They are accused of exporting, or helping to export, more than 30 tonnes of cannabis resin to Belgium and the Netherlands via Spain, with the suspected complicity of gendarmerie police and members of the royal navy.
No date has yet been fixed for their trials.
In a statement released on November 23, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Khayari "has been imprisoned for his denunciation of corruption."
HRW demanded his release and also urged Morocco to revise legislation which makes it a custodial offense to make statements that are considered defamatory, insulting and false.
The rights organization said that such laws "are incompatible with Morocco's commitment under international law on human rights which protects the freedom of expression."
CASABLANCA - The appeal court in Casablanca on Tuesday upheld a three-year jail term against a human rights activist, Chahib Khayari, who had charged that top state employees were involved in a drug network.
Khayari was first sentenced on June 24 for his allegations against civil servants, which were held to be a denigration of state institutions.
Khayari is the chairman of the Human Rights Association in the Rif region (ARDH). He gave press interviews in which he charged that some members of a big drugs trafficking ring at Nador in north Morocco had been able to take up very senior posts in the administration.
The interior ministry dismissed Khayari's allegations as baseless.
Khayari was also sentenced in June on financial charges of depositing money in a foreign bank account without authorization. He was ordered to pay Moroccan customs a fine of 750,000 dirhams (about 66,000 euros / 98,000 dollars).
The fine was upheld by the appeal court, though defense lawyers said that Khayari only had 220 euros in a bank account in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, not 7,500 as reported by police.
The Nador ring was dismantled by police on January 13 and about 100 people were arrested and then prosecuted in Casablanca.
Numerous employees of the security forces were among those arrested. They are accused of exporting, or helping to export, more than 30 tonnes of cannabis resin to Belgium and the Netherlands via Spain, with the suspected complicity of gendarmerie police and members of the royal navy.
No date has yet been fixed for their trials.
In a statement released on November 23, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Khayari "has been imprisoned for his denunciation of corruption."
HRW demanded his release and also urged Morocco to revise legislation which makes it a custodial offense to make statements that are considered defamatory, insulting and false.
The rights organization said that such laws "are incompatible with Morocco's commitment under international law on human rights which protects the freedom of expression."
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