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Five opponents of the Moroccan government have decided to become civil parties before the Belgian justice system, considering that alleged interferences and acts of corruption within the European Parliament have prevented it from firmly condemning the human rights violations attributed to Morocco, reported the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.
Among the plaintiffs are Ali Reda Ziane, son of the lawyer and former Minister of Human Rights Mohammed Ziane, sentenced to three years in prison in Morocco; Omar Radi, an investigative journalist, sentenced in 2021 to six years in prison for endangering state security, rape, and indecent assault, then pardoned and released last July; Fouad Abdelmoumni, economist and human rights activist, prosecuted for denouncing on social media the use of the Pegasus software by Rabat; Hicham Mansouri, journalist targeted by the same spyware, sentenced to ten months in prison in 2015 and now exiled in France; and Soulaimane Raissoumi, a journalist critical of the regime, also sentenced in 2021 for «rape with violence and sequestration», before being pardoned three years later.
They are represented by Parisian lawyer Mohamed Jaite and Brussels lawyer Delphine Paci, who will file their civil party applications before the chamber of indictments in Brussels. This chamber is responsible for controlling the legality of the investigation opened in 2022, with the next hearing scheduled for January 7.
According to Delphine Paci, «the plaintiffs feel wronged by the acts of interference carried out by the accused and by the complicit organizations, notably the ASBL Fight Impunity, which have contributed to legitimizing the repression exercised against them for defending human rights and criticizing the regime».
