Morocco commutes sentence of detained former minister

A Moroccan court has commuted the prison sentence of opposition figure and former Minister Mohammed Ziane from five to three years, his lawyer said on Thursday.

The former human rights minister had been detained since 2022 and served a three-year term in a different case.

Ziane, 82, the former president of the Rabat Bar Association, was convicted on “embezzlement and squandering of public funds,” said his son and lawyer, Ali Reda Ziane.

The charges relate to funds the Moroccan Liberal Party, or PML — of which Ziane was founder and chief — received during a 2015 electoral campaign.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in July last year.

Even with the court reducing his sentence late Wednesday, “it remains heavy,” said his lawyer.

“He deserves to be acquitted because there was no embezzlement.”

The lawyer said whether the sentences in the two cases would be served concurrently or consecutively remained unclear.

Proceedings in the initial case followed an Interior Ministry complaint on seven counts, among them contempt of public officials and the judiciary, defamation, adultery, and sexual harassment.

But Ziane has alleged that he was detained “because of (his political) opinion.”

The opposition figure had become known in recent years for statements criticizing the authorities in Morocco, particularly the intelligence services.