Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch welcomed today's acquittal of thirty-six human rights activists by a Rabat, Morocco appeals court.
But in a new backgrounder issued today on the case, Morocco/Western Sahara: Freedom of Assembly on Trial, the two groups urged rapid progress in insuring the right of Moroccans to demonstrate peacefully.
The thirty-six defendants had been convicted on 16 May by a lower court of organizing an "unauthorized" demonstration and sentenced to three months in prison and a fine.
Today's acquittal comes nearly a year after the defendants were arrested as they attempted to hold a peaceful sit-in in Rabat against impunity for human rights abuses. Police assaulted the participants even before the sit-in began, clubbing and punching them when making the arrests.
"Despite some progress on human rights in Morocco, the violent arrests and the initial conviction of the demonstrators show that the right to assemble is far from guaranteed," said Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
The rally of December 9, 2000 was organized by the Moroccan Association of Human Rights to demand an end to impunity for the perpetrators of human rights violations, especially the "disappearances," torture and arbitrary imprisonment that were commonplace in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch sent observers to the trial of the thirty-six activists who were arrested that night and charged. After spending one night in jail, they have been provisionally at liberty pending the final verdict.
