Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

The Moroccan state increasingly restricts freedoms and harasses activists of popular protests. It tries to silence all voices that reject social and economic policies that generalize misery and social injustice.

Omar Radi, activist and independent journalist, has been in pre-trial detention since Thursday 26 December 2019. The prosecutor decided to charge him for “contempt of court” following a tweet in ast April 2019 denouncing the confirmation by an appeal judge of up to 20 years sentences in prison for 42 members of the Rif Hirak. These heavy sentences had aroused deep popular indignation.

His lawyers’ request for release was rejected and the next hearing has been set for 2^nd January 2020.

Radi’s arrest comes in a context of large repression attack against journalists, bloggers on social networks and citizens who express in different ways their rejection of the conditions of misery and oppression imposed on large sections of the population.

Omar Radi is also a member of the association ATTAC Morocco, member of the CADTM network for the abolition of illegitimate debts. He is prosecuted by the “justice of despotism” because he has stood by the oppressed and denounced the servants of the regime. He is paying the price for his devotion. His arrest bears witness to the flouting of democratic freedoms and the criminalization of activists who aspire to a Morocco of freedom, dignity and social justice, slogans of the February 20^th Movement, in which Omar has been very actively involved since 2011. He has participated in various solidarity initiatives with the Rif Hirak. He is also co-director of ATTAC Morocco’s film on this Hirak entitled “Death Over Humiliation”.

At ATTAC Morocco, member of the CADTM network, we:

• Strongly condemn the arrest of Omar Radi
• Will participate in the different forms of solidarity for his liberation
• Denounce all attacks on popular forms of expression targeting dissidents of the regime.
• Call on all democratic organizations to join efforts and struggle to confront the widespread offensive against freedom of expression.

Omar chose to face arrest rather than accept humiliation.
All our solidarity and support to Omar.
Down with unjust sentences against the detainees of the Rif Hirak.

The National Secretariat
Rabat on 27/12/2019