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Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Saturday 20 April 2024

Protest leader ends hunger strike

The jailed leader of a Moroccan protest movement has ended a hunger strike, six days after launching it in protest against prison conditions. Nasser Zefzafi, who led the Hirak protest movement in Morocco's marginalised north in 2016 and 2017, was handed a 20-year jail term in June along with three others for 'plotting to undermine the security of the state'. A report on the News24 site notes that he was demanding a 'dignified cell' at the Oukacha prison in Casablanca. His lawyer Mohamed Aghnaj reportedly told AFP that Zefzafi had stopped his hunger strike on Thursday, without being able to say whether his demands had been met. The 2016 protests began when fisherman Mouhcine Fikri was crushed to death in a rubbish truck, while he was apparently trying to retrieve swordfish seized by authorities as it was caught out of season. Zefzafi was among 53 Hirak members convicted for their roles in the protests.