Moroccan receives jail term for decrying normalization with Israel
A Moroccan man has been sentenced to five years in prison for denouncing the country’s normalization of relations with Israel in posts on Facebook.
The Court of First Instance in Casablanca issued the verdict against Said Boukioud, 48, on July 31 for posts denouncing the normalization “in a way that could be interpreted as criticism of the king,” his lawyer El Hassan Essouni said Wednesday.
The lawyer described the verdict as “harsh and incomprehensible,” saying his client was expressing rejection of normalization and had no intention to offend the King.
The lawyer said he had appealed the ruling.
The Facebook posts were published in the last days of 2020, when Boukioud was living and working in Qatar. According to his lawyer, Boukioud deleted the posts and closed his account once he discovered he was facing prosecution in Morocco.
However, he was detained upon his return to Casablanca last week.
Boukioud was convicted under article 267-5 of the penal code, which punishes anyone who undermines the monarchy with a jail term of between six months and two years.
But that punishment can be increased to five years if the offence is committed publicly, including online.
Human rights activists have denounced the law that they say hinders freedom of expression.
In December 2020, Morocco became the fourth Arab country — after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan — to reach a normalization agreement with Israel, which was brokered by the administration of then President Donald Trump of the United States during its final days in office.
Palestinians see the accords as a stab in their back and a direct affront to their cause to liberate their lands from Israeli occupation.
A recent survey found that an overwhelming majority of people in Arab countries oppose normalization of relations with Israel, and consider the regime’s policies to be a threat to regional stability.
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