Faced by unprecedented persecution by Moroccan Makhzen, Dounia, Adnane Filali launch appeal to French President to abide by international laws

BY: Hana Saada

ALGIERS– The Moroccan journalists, namely Dounia and Adnane Filali, launched an appeal to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and government, urging them to assume full responsibility and abide by the 1951 Geneva Convention following the Makhzen regime’s cross-border repression imposed on them with a view to stifling their voices.

Noting that the human rights defenders are present on French soil as political refugees benefiting from UNHCR protection in China (under strict mandate Articles 5 and 6 of the 1951 Geneva Convention) following the persecution they are still suffering at the hands of the Moroccan regime and its intelligence services due to their journalistic activities.

“Since 2020, the Moroccan regime has been using all immoral, illegal, and inhumane tools to stifle our voices and persist in its cross-border repression,” the couple said in a communiqué addressed to the French government, President Emmanuel Macron, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, as well as public opinion.

The couple listed the methods of persecution used by the Moroccan regime against them, namely; daily defamation resorting to Moroccan pro-regime media outlets, targeting not only their persons but also their families as they systematically publish private information relating to their relatives. Added to that, the couple listed the fabrication of accusations with the aim of questioning their credibility, including, among others, arms and drug trafficking, the sale of counterfeits and sex toys, money laundering, prostitution, incest, tax evasion, terrorism, high treason, etc. These accusations resulted in the lodging of false complaints against them based on the aforementioned false accusations, brought by associations and lawyers hired by the Moroccan regime.

Rabat, which devotes 150 million dollars to its electronic army, would not spare the couple. Constant cyberattacks and online harassment are directed against the journalists, as indicated by DFRlab’s report.

In addition to its many gutter sites, the Makhzen has at its disposal thousands of electronic websites whose task is to flood and pollute social networks with all kinds of propaganda and subversive tools. This secret war takes a far more worrying turn with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). The Moroccan opposition figures are among the victims of these soft war tools. They are the subject of death threats, sexist insults and slander, calls for rape, and sexual discrimination against Dounia Filali through press articles and individuals in the service of the Moroccan regime.

The Makhzen regime did not fail to address the Chinese authorities, who confirmed, after receiving defamatory documents released in several languages (Arabic, French, Spanish, English, and Chinese) targeting the couple, and the launch of in-depth investigations, that these accusations were baseless.

The statement also referred to a report by TV5 Monde that evoked Morocco’s persecution of the couple. In a related context, the couple explained the reasons that pushed them to leave the Chinese soul: “They were attacked by individuals in May 2021, hired by the Moroccan secret services and the Moroccan embassy in China,” noted the press release.

Unable to pursue their journalistic activities properly, the couple left China for good and headed to France. Known for its strong ties with the Kingdom of Morocco, the couple paradoxically opted for France, betting on the European country’s values (liberty, equality, fraternity), respect for European and international laws, and freedom of expression.

Covered by international protection from the United Nations, the political refugees were questioned on November 29, 2021, by the OFPRA (French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons). Turning a blind eye to the systematic persecution exercised on the couple, the bureau carried out a thorough investigation related to the couple’s political convictions on Zionist entity-related issues (normalization of Morocco with the Zionist entity, Hamas, Dieudonné, Alain Soral, Palestine, Hezbollah, boycott of Zionist products, etc.).

Breaching the duty of confidentiality, the OFPRA disclosed the confidential elements, which were published in all the Moroccan defamatory media outlets and some French newspapers (Atlas Info, l’Incorrect, jeune Afrique…), as well as the Zionist media outlets close to the Moroccan regime (i24 News, Time of Israel…). We were labeled as admirers of Adolf Hitler, killers of Jews, anti-Semitic, pro-Iran, pro-Hezbollah, etc.

As a result, new defamation campaigns were launched against the Moroccan journalists. To wit, among others, a misleading statement issued by an association that claims to fight anti-Semitism in France with the aim of fueling international smear campaigns against them

Subsequently, the couple became the subject of international outrage. They were deprived of their political and human refugee rights (care, housing, financial aid, etc.). Besides, all the complaints they lodged relating to accusations of defamation, threats of beheadings, death threats, etc. were rejected for no logical reason. All their requests for a lawyer were denied.

The human rights defenders, who are “witnessing unprecedented persecution by the Moroccan regime in France with the complicity of certain French state bodies, depriving them of their legal, human, material, and security rights,” said in their communiqué that they had obtained highly confidential official documents and minutes, disclosing an intense collaboration between certain French state institutions and the Moroccan security services concerning their asylum case, aimed at silencing their voices.

According to them, the French intelligence services concluded that “they were mere journalists with no criminal record who, in no way, posed a threat of any kind”. Despite the issuance of this report, they added, “some French parties, which bowed down to the Moroccan Makhzen serving its malicious interests to the detriment of the French republic‘s values and principles, illegally refused to recognize it, claiming that our presence on the French soul would harm French-Moroccan relations”.

Dounia Filali, who is courageously fighting to freely exercise her profession as a journalist and defend the rights of Moroccans, referred, on her part, in the communiqué to the extreme humiliation inflicted on her, as she has been stripped of all her fundamental rights by the same body that shows the most abject and dangerous misogyny and sexism towards her.

At the end of the communiqué, the couple reiterated their call for French President Emanuel Macron, the government, justice, and French institutions to assume full responsibility, respect human rights and international, European, and French laws, as well as abide by the 1951 Geneva Convention.