Avocats Sans Frontières in Morocco
Morocco is opening up to democracy. However, there are two many gaps between theory and practice in the country.
The democratisation of the army and the right to freedom of expression
October 2000 - May 2002. Prosecuted in his personal capacity for failing to respect confinement to barracks and for offence to the army for having denounced corruption at the heart of the Moroccan army, Abid is stripped of his functions and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
ASF ensured an international presence at Abib’s second trial before the Permanent Court of the Royal Armed Forces in Rabat. ASF, in collaboration with the United Nations (UN), intervened in December 2001 as part of a group denouncing this arbitrary detention.
The independence of the judiciary called into question
November 2003. A judge of the Administrative Court in Agadir, elected by his peers to the High Council of the Judiciary, Judge Hassoune Jaafar is suspended following a petition highlighting irregularities in the procedure followed during the trial of five of his colleagues.
Acting in the name of the Judge’s right to freedom of expression and of opinion, ASF intervened to ensure greater fairness in the trial of Judge Jaafar. As well as its work as part of the legal proceedings, ASF denounced the lack of independence of the Moroccan judiciary, which remains too subject to the influence of the executive.
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ASF Programmes
