Letter writing on behalf of Ali Anouzla

 This month the group wrote on behalf of Ali Anouzla who was charged in September  with offences under Morocco’s severe anti-terrorism laws. 

We wrote letters to various Moroccan ministries protesting at the treatment of a Moroccan journalist named Ali Anouzla. The charges relate to an article he published in a news website which he helps to edit concerning a video issued by an Al Q’aeda group entitled “Morocco, Kingdom of Corruption and Despotism”. The article did not endorse the views of the video, neither did it show the video.



Amnesty believes that Ali Anouzla has been singled out because of the independence of his views and his willingness to criticise the government.  These charges are symptomatic, Amnesty believes, of Morocco’s unfair and ill-defined anti-terrorism legislation which criminalise not only acts of terrorism but also discussion of terrorism and criticism of the laws relating to terrorism.



Letters were sent to Morocco to the Minister of Justice and Liberties, the Minister of the Interior and the president of the National Council of Civil Liberties, with copies of each sent to the Moroccan embassy in London.