Moroccan security forces have dismantled a terrorist cell and detained all of its 11 members. They are believed to have international links,
Its leader, identified as Mohamed Said Idghiri, once active in the north of the country, had received secret paramilitary training in a foreign military camp, according to the official news agency MPA.
Back in Morocco since September, he started planning attacks within the territory of Morocco with the help of international terrorist groups, said MPA.
The security forces had been keeping close watch over Said Idghiri and his nascent terror group and launched a preemptive operation to stop their plans, the report added.
The suspects will be questioned and then brought to court, it said.
Morocco has stepped up its counter-terrorism measures with more than 3,000 arrests since May 2003 when a string of suicide bomb attacks in Casablanca killed 45 people.
The Moroccan Culture ministry, in conjunction with Foreign ministry, will take measures to recover the Moroccan archaeological objects that were recently seized by French customs.
According to a communiqué of the culture ministry, the two departments will dispatch archaeology experts to France to examine and categorize these objects and define their value. The French customs seized, during November and December, 17,800 Moroccan and Malian archaeological objects in the south of Spain. The artifacts, which were illegally brought from Morocco and Mali, were seized in two separate operations.
The archaeological objects include high-value fossils from southern Morocco. Among the seized fossils, there were trilobites, great marine insects dating back to the Primary era, i.e. over 250 million years, a jaw of a marine dinosaur dating back to the Secondary era, and tortoises and crocodile skulls dating back 60 million years.
Almost one-third of illegal immigrants to Italy now come from Morocco, compared with just 2.4% one year ago. 15,000 would-be immigrants entered Italy from Africa in 2005.
“The numbers (of Moroccan migrants) have mushroomed over the past two months, and are a particular cause for concern,” said Italy's interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu.
Full Story in Morocco Times
A new Moroccan left-wing party called The Labour Party of Morocco has been set up by a group of former members of Moroccan trade unions and the Socialist Popular Forces Union (USFP). The new party's preparatory committee is headed by former USFP member Abdelkrim Benatik (pictured left), who is drafting the party's platform, which is expected to be presented in February after the party is registered. According to Benatik, the new party will be made up mainly of former trade unionists, active members of civil society and businessmen.Full story in Morocco Times
In related news, a new conservative party with "Islamic credentials" was created on Sunday in Morocco. The announcement of the creation of the "Parti de la Renaissance et de la Vertu -(PRV)" (Party of Renaissance and Virtue), described as a "national emocratic party with Islamic referential" was made in the small town of Bouznika (50 km south of Rabat). The newly created Islam-inspired Party is notably made up of former members of the Party of Justice and development (PJD) considered as a moderate Islamic party, the conservative "Istiqlal", the oldest party in Morocco, and of the National Rally of Independents (RNI).
According to the Secretary General of the PRV, Mohamed Khalidi - former senior in the PJD party-, the party aims to "review Islamic referential concept, as well as to improve dialogue, tolerance and to correct Islamic image in the West".
Some 26 political parties participated in 2002 general elections in Morocco and seven of them are represented in the government.
The Federation of Newspapers Publishers (FMEJ) has expressed "astonishment" at the recent declarations of the Justice Ministry to set up a "follow-up unit" in charge of monitoring all press publications.The move, due to survey articles published in the print media, is considered by the ministry as perfectly lawful, as it abides by the legal provisions and can, therefore, not be considered as an impediment to the freedom of the press, opinion or expression.
Citing the legal framework that governs and allows the creation of the unit, a press release of the justice ministry said, on Friday, that the unit will be tasked with documenting the citizens' complaints and the unlawful practices within the State's bodies.
FMEJ deplores that the justice ministry has resorted to "emergency measures and used certain terms to designate unprecedented facts in the press act, which consists an unjustified escalation against the press."
The federation underlines the need to urgently set up a “national council of the press, wherein journalists take on their hands the organisation of their profession, and prevent any possible drift of the authorities or those who work in the sector.”
On Thursday the Appeal Court of Casablanca declined the TelQuel magazine appeal against a two months suspended jail term and a fine but did reduced the compensation to MAD 800,000 instead of MAD 1 million.
Last August TelQuel Magazine's director, Reda Benchemsi, and journalist Karim Boukhari were given a two months suspended jail sentence and a fine of MAD 25,000 each and a fine of MAD 1 million as compensation to Halima Assali, a female MP and a member of the centre-right party Mouvement Populaire.
The story started when the magazine published a short satirical article pointing out that a female member of Parliament (referred to as Asmaa to avoid being sued for defamation) had once been a cheikha (popular singer) in the Middle Atlas before the 2002 elections.
Earlier, TelQuel, together with three other local papers Al Ahdath Al Maghribiya, Al Ayam and Al Ousbouîya Al Jadida, had published an article reporting that Touria Bouabid, President of a child relief organisation, had been summoned by the police for questioning about embezzlement within her NGO. Although the information came from police sources it was eventually reported to be false.
Soon afterwards, TelQuel as well as the other papers published a disclaimer. The problem could have stopped there, but Bouabid has chosen to sue the four papers.
On Aug. 15, as Benchemsi was abroad, his lawyer handed a letter to the judge asking him to postpone the verdict until TelQuel's director return to the country. The judge ignored the letter, ruled and closed the case. The fine imposed by the court was so large that it could force the magazine out of business.
“The ruling had little to do with the cheikha article, someone in Morocco's establishment clearly doesn't appreciate TelQuel's independent journalism,” said Benchemsi.
Having been condemned to pay the heaviest fine in comparison with the other papers, Benchemsi said that "The aim is no longer to give us a lesson, but simply to bring us down."
During the last months, the newspaper has been drowned in libel cases and been sentenced to pay a total of MAD 1,960,000 (€180,000) in damages and fines only since August.
TelQuel is considered one of Morocco's daring magazines and often used as an example of how open a society Morocco is becoming. It breaks taboos in its open coverage of all aspects of Moroccan society. The magazine made international headlines with a cover story on King Mohammed VI's salary, and has also published progressive stories on sexuality, religion, and the conflict with the Western Sahara. TelQuel's editor Ahmed Benchemsi has been recognized with fellowships at the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek.
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