Moroccan human rights activist arrested one year after royal pardon

As international scrutiny on Morocco’s crackdown on critics mounts, the kingdom has tried to recast its tarnished reputation. However, the arrest of a prominent human rights activist may signal the kingdom’s continued efforts to disappear dissent

One year on from her release under a royal pardon, the notorious activist Saida El Alami was detained on July 1 for charges that still remain unknown and unreported by state media. She was arrested in the streets of Casablanca in the early hours of the morning–a move that has “shocked” her entourage, they revealed to Maghrebi.

A critical figure on social media, El Alami has distinguished herself in recent years with posts denouncing security abuses and supporting prisoners of conscience, notably Rif Hirak activists and detained journalists such as Taoufiq Bouachrine, Soulaimane Raissouni, and Omar Radi. It was for this reason that she was first sentenced to two years in prison and fined 5000 dirhams in April 2022.

Her apparently inflammatory posts highlighted the kingdom’s repression of free speech, especially as it continues to instrumentalize the law to suddenly disappear dissent. El Alami was found guilty of “contempt of public officials in the exercise of their functions, attack on justice, and dissemination of false allegations.”

In September 2022, the Casablanca appeals court increased the sentence to three years. In May of the following year, her lawyer revealed that she was found guilty of “insulting the king” and “insulting a magistrate or public servant” based on statements she made during her previous trial, and her sentence was increased to six years.

However, in July 2024, she was released as part of a royal pardon that included over 2,400 activists, journalists, and bloggers on the 25th anniversary of King Mohammed VI’s reign. While framed as a “humanitarian gesture,” international pressure on the Kingdom’s dubious trials no doubt shaped the decision.

International organizations, human rights groups, and foreign governments alike have repeatedly condemned trials and sentences like El Alami’s, framing them as a broader pattern of crushing dissent in Morocco.

In January 2024, the Human Rights Watch explicitly accused the Moroccan authorities of misusing the judicial process and bringing heavy criminal charges to suppress independent journalists and opponents.

While organizations like the International Federation of Journalists and the lauded the pardon, framing it as a positive step toward restoring media freedom, exactly a year later, El Alami is back behind bars.

According to the Moroccan-friendly outlet H24, Associative actors and human rights defenders believe her most recent arrest to be traced, once again, to her online presence, where she “insults institutions, especially law enforcement.”

“Well-informed sources” cited by the same outlet say that El Alami will be presented before the prosecutor’s office on July 3. Associative actors and human rights defenders believe that his arrest could be linked to recent posts on Facebook. Others say it is essentially linked to videos in which it “insults institutions, especially law enforcement“.

Maghrebi/ H24