Moroccan freed after two years in jail for EL PAÍS article

Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Thursday pardoned 190 prisoners of conscience, the largest such release since he came to the throne 12 years ago. One of the beneficiaries of the royal grace is Chakib al Khayari, a veteran activist against drug trafficking in northern Morocco, who published an article in EL PAÍS in July 2006, denouncing that Moroccan law-enforcement officials were in cahoots with drug lords in that part of the country.

In 2009, Al Khayari — who is also president of the Rif Human Rights Association — was sentenced to a three-year prison term for "misleading statements" that "tend to harm the authority's image" and for infringing foreign currency legislation by depositing funds in a Spanish bank without authorization (EL PAÍS sent him a check to Nador, his home town, and Al Khayari deposited it in a local bank in the Spanish enclave of Melilla).

Morocco's pro-government media, with the daily As Sabah at the helm, suggested that Al Khayari was receiving money from Spain's intelligence agency, the CNI.

A month after his arrest in February 2009, a CNI agent attached to the Spanish Consulate in Nador was served with an expulsion order from Moroccan authorities. Three months later, two CNI liaison officers at the Spanish Consulate in Tétouan received similar treatment. Spanish secret services were able to redeploy personnel in both cities, even though pro-government media accused CNI chief Félix Sanz Roldán of trying to impose anti-Moroccan policies on Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Prestigious human rights organizations immediately demanded Al Khayari's release, which came after a 26-month spell in prison.

Most of the 96 prisoners released on Thursday are Islamists, while many of the other beneficiaries of the pardon only got sentence reductions.