It’s a real controversy in Morocco today. Defence lawyer Mohamed Ziane confirmed that Ilyas El Omari asked the activist Nasser Zefzafi to demand a referendum for the autonomy of the Rif region.
« President of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region and leader of the Party Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), Ilyas El Omari, who appointed Zefzafi’s brother as a member of the party’s executive board, sought to incite activist Nasser Zefzafi to harden the demands of their movement in order to give a political character to the Hirak and eliminate the Justice and Development Party from the political scene”, Ziane told alhayatalyaoumia.com.
He added that “at their meetings, Ilyas asked Zefzafi to demand a referendum for the autonomy of the Rif region, as it is the case for the south of the kingdom. This prompted Nasser Zefzafi to ask the Hirak activists to stop communicating with PAM and its leaders as he begun to smell a conspiracy. As El Omari insisted on this point, Zefzafi asked him if he was speaking on behalf of the king he would introduce to him someone else of greater importance to confirm that the proposal of autonomy in the Rif emanates from the royal palace and not from the person of El Omari. This provoked a conflict between the activists and El Omari. Then they began to treat him of traitor. Shortly after, a statement accusing of treachery the Hirak was issued by the parties of the majority, on the initiative of the Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit. This is how the slogan ‘Long live the Hirak, Down with the traitors’ was adopted by the activists. »
“Instead of this storm, the court could have today let Zefzafi talk and state publicly so as not to give the opportunity to the opponents of the regime and the territorial unity the opportunity to put pressure on him”, concluded Ziane.
The lawyer Isaac Sharia had made waves on Tuesday before the Court of Casablanca while he was defending the detainee activists of the Rif. He asserted that Ilyas El Omari asked his client Nasser Zefzafi “to conspire” against the Moroccan monarchy.
Shocked by these assertions, the judge stressed that these claims are “very grave”.
“Yes, and if you do not believe me you can give the floor to Zefzafi who will confirm this to you”, replied the lawyer adding: “If ever what I said doesn’t be true, you and the representative of the general prosecutor you could take any measure against me”.