The historian and human rights activist is already severely weakened by ten weeks of “arbitrary detention“.
The support committee for Moroccan historian Maati Monjib, who has been on hunger strike for several days, on Wednesday expressed “serious concern” for the health of the human rights activist, already severely weakened by ten weeks of “arbitrary detention“.
“The committee renews its demands for the immediate release” of “prisoner of conscience” Maati Monjib and “expresses its grave concern about the effects, on his health and on his life, of [his] hunger strike” intended for ” protest against the injustice of which he was the victim, ”he said in a press release.
The prison administration directorate (DGAPR) said in a statement that the detainee, held in El Arjat prison, near Rabat, had been “placed under medical supervision” on Monday (March 8th).
Maati Monjib, 60, announced in a message sent by his supporters that he had started a hunger strike on Thursday March 4 to “challenge public opinion” on his situation since his “abusive arrest” at the end of 2020. “My critical writings to towards the political system and the police and my human rights activities ”are at the origin of“ my persecution, ”he said.
“Endangering the security of the state”
DGAPR says it was only informed on Monday of its hunger strike and denies that it started on March 4. “The administration of the penitentiary tried to persuade him to give up his case because of its repercussions on his state of health, but he insisted not to change his mind,” according to a statement released on Monday.
Arrested on December 29, 2020 as part of a preliminary investigation for “money laundering”, the intellectual was at the same time sentenced to one year in prison on January 27 for “fraud” and “endangering state security” at the end of a trial opened in 2015. This concerned accusations of embezzlement in the management of a center he had created to promote, in particular, investigative journalism.
His lawyers and his support committee were indignant that the judgment was rendered in his absence, without summoning his defense. Moroccan judicial authorities say he received a “fair trial”.
Maati Monjib suffers from heart problems and diabetes, medical problems he himself mentioned on his Facebook page when he announced in November that he had been infected with the new coronavirus.
In a separate press release, the support committee for Mr. Monjib in France, a country of which he is also a national, calls “the French authorities, the President of the Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, already seized of the case since month of January, to do everything possible to obtain the immediate release of Maati Monjib ”.
