The appeals court in Casablanca arrested people who participated in the protests in Rif in 2016 and 2017 for “violating the internal security of the state” and have accused them of “participating in uprisings and banned protests.”

The leaders of the protests have received the highest prison sentences of twenty years. The other 49 received a sentence of one to fifteen years. The penalties were as follows: four persons were sentenced to 15 years, seven persons to 10 years, ten persons to five years, eight to three years, nineteen to two years and one to one year. As an exception, one person has been fined 5,000 dirhams. When the sentence was read, there were no defendants in the courtroom and their families and friends have chanted religious songs against the state, even like “Gora Rif”.

Only one of the defense attorneys has admitted that he will appeal. On the other hand, the lawyer of the State points out that the prison sentences are “very light”.

Among those arrested is Nasser Zafzafi. He became the leader of this unexpected revolution by interrupting the sermon of a magnet in a mosque. What happened in Rif has been considered by many as a civil rebellion. The rebellion did not have a clear structure but was based on the movement known as Hirak from 2016 onwards to denounce the delays that the region suffers: the economic backwardness, the lack of opportunities for youth and the scarcity of public services.

Despite the historical and structural nature of these problems, the rebellion began with a fishmonger. Al-Hoceima’s Mohsen Fikri, a fishmonger, died inside a garbage truck crushed by the internal mechanism after police seized all his goods for illegal fishing.