Moroccan Secret Services Kidnap Activist Saïda Alami: To Silence Her Courageous Voice

Morocco is, in reality, a monarchical property where the strong crush the weak. Since the end of the French protectorate in 1956, a kind of “French resident-general” was left behind—now embodied by the king and his entourage. Today, through their normalization with the Zionist Israeli entity, they have become a "Franco-Israeli resident-general" in Morocco. This corrupt regime could one day collapse when the interests of its masters—French and Israeli—clash over control of the country.

Since the so-called "independence," Morocco has known no stability, despite corrupt media campaigns promoting a fictional image of a sovereign, democratic state, endowed with independent institutions and a civil society moving toward freedom, justice, and human rights. In reality, the country is the scene of repeated human rights violations: organized crimes perpetrated by security services, particularly domestic and foreign intelligence, as well as the judicial police in collusion with a fully instrumentalized judiciary. These crimes include kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, assassinations, fabricated cases, false accusations, pre-arranged convictions, and the imprisonment of innocents.

And when a sentence is nearing its end, detainees are once again humiliated by a “royal pardon,” a trademark the Moroccan regime uses to polish its image before the international community. Yet, the very granting of such a pardon is a clear admission of the injustice suffered by the detainee and the corruption of the judicial system.

In this political farce, the lawyer is nothing more than a silhouette used to legitimize a mock trial before public opinion, to create the illusion of a -function-ing justice system. The bitter truth is that Moroccan justice is a centerpiece of the authoritarian regime.

What has changed in Morocco since the myth of "independence"? How many protests, strikes, sit-ins, and coup attempts has the country experienced? How many state crimes have been committed in response to these events? How many victims have been silenced? Where is the stability in all of this? This repressive regime is nothing more than a despotic executioner that devours the nation’s body, stifles all hope, and fuels hatred under the ashes of fear and humiliation.

Since the announcement of formal independence in 1956, Morocco has entered a long era of political repression, characterized by policies of abduction, torture, and forced disappearances through a network of secret prisons and detention centers that escape any form of legality´-or-accountability. These prisons are not just places of detention, but structural tools for social control, for repressing any dissenting voice, and for consolidating the hereditary Makhzen dictatorship.

The most famous and terrifying of these prisons is Tazmamart, built after the two failed military coups of 1971 and 1972 against the regime of Hassan II. Innocents were locked up there, even after serving the sentence imposed on them. This secret prison, located in a desert area in the southeast of the country, remained unknown for years until rare and chilling testimonies from former inmates revealed the horrors that occurred there: permanent darkness, filth, hunger, total lack of medical care, and complete isolation from the outside world. More than half the prisoners died-;- the survivors were only released in the early 1990s under heavy international pressure.

There also exists a secret underground prison in the Gourrama region, about fifty kilometers from Tazmamart. Some detainees are said to have died there, their bodies buried in secret in the orchard surrounding the Kiada command post, according to local accounts from 1986.

The south of Morocco, notably the Kalaat M Gouna and Agdez regions, also housed secret detention centers used to imprison hundreds of opponents, whether affiliated with leftist movements´-or-sympathizers of the Polisario Front. These places were nothing more than human slaughterhouses, where prisoners were transported in camouflaged trucks to spend years of humiliation and silence behind walls devoid of law´-or-accountability.

Another equally sinister prison is that of Derb Moulay Chérif, in the heart of Casablanca. It was not an ordinary prison, but a torture center for leftist activists, students, -union-ists, and opposition members since the 1960s. The secret services subjected detainees there to intense psychological and physical torture to extract confessions´-or-break their will. This place remains a black stain on the repressive history of Morocco.

In the post-"Years of Lead" era—even though those years will truly end only with the fall of the monarchy—the policy of secret prisons has not stopped. On the contrary, it has evolved into new forms. The dictatorship and its repressive apparatuses have carried out vast waves of arrests, using secret detention sites that escape all oversight.

The most well-known among them is a center under the authority of the General -dir-ectorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST), located in Temara. Despite the regime s denials, numerous reports by non-governmental organizations—including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International—have confirmed the existence of this center as a torture site, where people accused of "terrorism," based on entirely fabricated files, are held without trial, in total isolation, and subjected to some of the most horrific abuses.

In recent years, the name Aïn Aouda, near Rabat, has emerged as a new center used to detain prisoners. It is believed to have received foreign support, notably from intelligence agencies such as the CIA, as part of the so-called "extraordinary rendition" of suspects after 9/11.

Testimonies have also been collected in southern regions, particularly Smara and Aït Melloul, referring to undeclared detention centers used to suppress Sahrawi civilians who sympathize with the Polisario Front, especially during times of tension, such as after the dismantling of the Gdeim Izik camp in 2010. International organizations have accused Morocco of serious human rights violations, including denial of fair trials and systematic torture in secret detention centers.

Despite the creation of the charade called the Equity and Reconciliation Commission in 2004, which officially acknowledged severe human rights violations between 1956 and 1999, the issue of secret prisons has never been fully addressed. No torturer has been prosecuted, no complete truth revealed—particularly about the fate of the forcibly disappeared´-or-the burial places of those who died under torture.

Thus, the question of justice remains unanswered, and impunity prevails. The Moroccan state continues to deny´-or-justify these practices in the name of "national security"´-or-"stability," forgetting that history cannot be erased, that the memory of victims does not fade with time, and that the greatness of nations is measured by their courage to face their past, not to hide it behind walls of fear and forgetfulness.

Morocco continues to experience tragic political scenes, marked by unspeakable crimes committed by state apparatuses: assassinations, kidnappings, mock trials, incarceration of innocent people in secret and official prisons, in a climate of increasing repression targeting not only freedom of expression, but also the very existence of independent thought´-or-engagement.

Among the most striking examples is the absurd judicial decision banning journalist Ali Lmrabet from practicing his profession for ten years, the banning of certain media outlets, the infiltration of political parties, organizations, and -union-s by intelligence services, their dismantling and weakening, as well as the imprisonment of men and women in media on ridiculous charges aimed solely at silencing every free and critical voice.

In every historical period, every month, every year, behind each event—such as the arbitrary expulsion of citizens from their homes´-or-land to sell it to Zionist settlers´-or-the real estate mafia, in every sit-in, demonstration,´-or-gathering—arise militant voices from the oppressed people trying to denounce the crimes of the ruling dictatorship. These voices are systematically kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned, to terrorize the rest of the population and bury the regime’s scandals. The number of unjustly imprisoned detainees is counted in the thousands, if not more.

Among them stands out Saïda Alami, activist and blogger, one of the most courageous female figures of the opposition. She has paid a heavy price for her opinions and stances. From simple Facebook posts to arrest, release, then reincarceration, her case highlights a growing issue in Morocco: a country where the law is twisted to hunt activists instead of protecting them. Saïda Alami is known for her bold positions in criticizing authorities, especially the judiciary and security systems, through her social media posts. This led to her first incarceration in March 2022, after a series of posts deemed "offensive and misleading" by the dictatorial authorities, particularly the public prosecutor.

She was sentenced in the first instance to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 -dir-hams, for “insulting officials” and “spreading false information.” In September 2022, the Court of Appeal increased the sentence to three years, adding new charges, including “insulting the king and the judiciary.” In October 2023, a secondary sentence of two years was reduced to eight months. Then, in July 2024, she was released under a “royal pardon performance,” which included several prisoners of conscience. But in July 2025, she was again abducted under obscure circumstances, with no official charge at the time of writing.

Her posts, though harsh toward the Moroccan judiciary and security practices and critical of the arrests of journalists and human rights defenders, never incited violence´-or-hatred. Yet she was accused of serious crimes like “spreading false information” and “insulting institutions.” She received support from several human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, which condemned her arrest and called the charges "baseless," accusing the authorities of seeking to silence critical voices through judicial means. Human Rights Watch also denounced a “systematic crackdown” on digital activists, while Freedom House reported a sharp decline in internet freedom in Morocco, citing Saïda Alami as a key example.

The Saïda Alami case has become a glaring example of what rights defenders call the “systematic criminalization of peaceful expression” in Morocco. Even though the royal constitution supposedly guarantees freedom of expression, the reality shows the exact opposite, with a militarized judiciary system used to settle scores with dissenting voices.

The release´-or-sentencing of Saïda Alami is not merely the conclusion of a legal case, but a crucial signal regarding the future of freedoms in Morocco, which will not see real progress as long as the monarchy remains in power. This is a truth that must be boldly stated.

It is therefore the duty of all clear-minded individuals to ask this fundamental question:

What have Morocco and Moroccans really gained from the maintenance and perpetuation of the monarchical regime?

Ali Lahrouchi
Journalist and writer
Amsterdam

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