Case History: Samad Iach
On 25 August 2015, human rights defender Mr Samad Iach was banned from travelling by Moroccan security forces at Mohamed V International Airport. Later the travel ban was lifted.
The human rights defender was to travel to Tunisia to attend a media and journalism training course between 26 August 2015 and 9 September 2015. This follows trumped-up charges that were brought against him on 15 August 2015.
The trial has been postponed for the fifth time to 25 January 2017.
Samad Iach is a journalist and human rights defender who is a member of the Association Marocaine pour le Journalisme d'Investigation – AMJI (Moroccan Association for Investigative Journalism). He also writes for the online newspaper Lakome 2, the editor of which is prominent human rights defender Mr Ali Anouzla.
On 21 October 2015 human rights defender Mr Samad Iach was prevented from travelling by security forces to Tunisia, where he was going to attend a conference on journalism.
Samad Iach was initially informed of the travel ban against him on 25 August 2015, when Moroccan security forces at Mohamed V International Airport prevented him from travelling to Tunisia to attend a journalism training course. The travel ban follows trumped-up charges that were brought against him on 15 August 2015, when he was summoned for interrogation by the National Brigade for the Judicial Police (BNPJ) and interrogated for approximately ten hours about his work as a journalist and human rights defender. He was charged with “undermining the allegiance of citizens with respect to constitutional institutions”, “attempting to establish fitna (unrest)” and “working for foreign agendas.” He was subsequently released and was at no stage informed of a travel ban against him, until he attempted to travel ten days later.
The airport's Passport Control considered Samad Iach's travel ban to have been effective as of 15 June 2015. This renders his continued travel ban illegal according to ِArticle 40 of Morocco's Code of Criminal Procedure, according to which the ban must not last more than one month in his case, and particularly since he has cooperated with the authorities.
On 25 August 2015, human rights defender Mr Samad Iach was banned from travelling by Moroccan security forces at Mohamed V International Airport.
The human rights defender was to travel to Tunisia to attend a media and journalism training course between 26 August 2015 and 9 September 2015. This follows trumped-up charges that were brought against him on 15 August 2015.
Samad Iach was informed of the official travel ban by an officer at the airport's passport control. He was subsequently taken into a room where he was interrogated for an hour by two airport officers.
The human rights defender had been summoned for interrogation on 15 August 2015 by the National Brigade for the Judicial Police (BNPJ) and interrogated for approximately ten hours about his work as a journalist and human rights defender. He was charged with “undermining the allegiance of citizens with respect to constitutional institutions”, “attempting to establish fitna (unrest)” and “working for foreign agendas.” He was subsequently released and was at no stage informed of a travel ban against him.
