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Prince Moulay Hicham, the first cousin of King Mohammed VI, was expelled by the Tunisian authorities on Friday evening to France via an Air France flight. The Prince who was supposed to chair a lecture on Friday 10th of September entitled «The Arab Spring has not yet Said its Final Word», was reportedly driven to the airport by security forces and without being given a valid explanation.
Speaking to Nawaat, an independent collective blog founded in 2006, Moulay Hicham explained how he was deported from Tunisia three days ago. First of all, the Prince insisted that he was «not arrested», indicating that «it was at the hotel (Mövenpick) that police officers, accompanied by the hotel’s manager, approached me». According to him, police officers said that they were from the airport and that they had to search his room. While they were searching his hotel room, Moulay Hicham insisted that «the hotel director be present to witness what the police officers present might find», he told the same source.
Security forces then accompanied the prince to the Airport. «The police expected me to accompany them to the airport in a vehicle provided by the hotel. But I asked to ride with the police in their official vehicle since I wanted it to be clear that I was officially under their responsibility in case of any risk for my life», he indicated.
No one knows why the Prince was deported
Asked whether he was informed about his deportation, the Prince replied clarifying : «The police took me directly to the airport. Once I arrived, the director of Air France informed me that he had been asked to book a seat for the flight to Paris».
As indicated the Prince was supposed to take part of an international forum on democratic transition in the Arab Maghreb : Tunisia as an example, organized by the American Stanford University, California. He was expelled without being given any written document justifying the decision. According to him the Tunisian authorities announced verbally through the airport's microphone that he had committed nothing wrong.
Moulay Hicham was also expected to participate to a conference that would be held Tomorrow 12th of September in Qatar. The lecture organized by the Brookings Institution, an American think tank, as reported by Raialyoum, was annulled due to unknown reasons.
As the Tunisian authorities did not reveal the reasons behind the ambiguous deportation of the Moroccan Prince, several media platforms suggest that the real reason is linked to pressure put by the UAE. Repplying to these hypothesis, the Prince stated that he has «no idea about the Saudi or Emirati interference in these academic affairs, and again I do not want to speculate».
For the record, Prince Moulay Hicham, is known to the public as the first cousin of King Mohammed VI and also as the author of the biography of his father, the brother and personal representative of the late King Hassan II. He is also a social activist and a democratic reform advocate.
