Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

The trial of Amina Morad and Benasser Ismaïni , the two activists of the Association for Defending of microcredit Victims was held on Tuesday 11^th February 11, 2014 under a heavy police presence.

At 9:30 am, the judge, came especially from Rabat the capital, quickly pronounced the verdict and called one year in prison and a fine of 30,000 MAD each and 10,000 MAD as compensation for microcredit organization INMAA.
Many Microcredit Victims came demonstrated early this morning before the Court of Ouarzazate, showing their solidarity with their leaders.

Amina Morad and Benasser Ismaïni have 10 days to appeal against this unjust judgment:

While witnesses are not presented and the lawyer of INMAA, the microcredit organization that had filed a complaint, did not appear in court during the 28^th January session.

While defense lawyers presented evidence of abuses and excesses of the microcredit system (especially as regards the usurers interest rates Interest rates When A lends money to B, B repays the amount lent by A (the capital) as well as a supplementary sum known as interest, so that A has an interest in agreeing to this financial operation. The interest is determined by the interest rate, which may be high or low. To take a very simple example: if A borrows 100 million dollars for 10 years at a fixed interest rate of 5%, the first year he will repay a tenth of the capital initially borrowed (10 million dollars) plus 5% of the capital owed, i.e. 5 million dollars, that is a total of 15 million dollars. In the second year, he will again repay 10% of the capital borrowed, but the 5% now only applies to the remaining 90 million dollars still due, i.e. 4.5 million dollars, or a total of 14.5 million dollars. And so on, until the tenth year when he will repay the last 10 million dollars, plus 5% of that remaining 10 million dollars, i.e. 0.5 million dollars, giving a total of 10.5 million dollars. Over 10 years, the total amount repaid will come to 127.5 million dollars. The repayment of the capital is not usually made in equal instalments. In the initial years, the repayment concerns mainly the interest, and the proportion of capital repaid increases over the years. In this case, if repayments are stopped, the capital still due is higher…

The nominal interest rate is the rate at which the loan is contracted. The real interest rate is the nominal rate reduced by the rate of inflation. that are charged.

While testimonies from microcredit’s victims multiply and the movement against the abuse of microcredit organizations grows in several regions,

This ruling with many flaws comes to shows how “Justice” defends banking organizations that are above the laws and aggravate the poverty of their so-called “beneficiaries” and condemns the victims and their supporters.

There is no doubt with so heavily condemning of Amina and Benasser the “under order” justice aims to scare victims and break their movement.

We call for a wider national and international solidarity for justice for Amina and Benasser and all microcredit’s victims, and to publicize abuses microcredit organizations and the struggle of their victims :

• For outright acquittal of Amina Morad and Benasser Ismaïni

 Reminder: four microcredit organizations who had complained against Amina Morad and Benasser Ismaïni for fraud , defamation and threats had withdrawn their complaint and two activists were cleared at the trial in the first instance. But a new organization, INMAA linked to the NGO AMSED and “Planet Finance” has raised the matter on appeal. The Prosecutor had requested the maximum sentence: five years in prison for Amina Morad and Benasser Ismaïni in the Court of Appeal in Ouarzazate at the 3^rd session of the trial on the 12^th November 2013.

 ATTAC / CADTM MOROCCO

February 11, 2014

Ci-dessous vous pouvez consulter un témoignage des deux inculpés