Tariq Aziz was an Iraqi politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and a close advisor of President Saddam Hussein. Their association began in the 1950s when both were activists for the then-banned Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He was both an Arab nationalist and a member of the Chaldean Catholic Church.
The 2003 Casablanca bombings were a series of suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's history. Forty-five people were killed in the attacks. The suicide bombers came from the shanty towns of Sidi Moumen, a poor suburb of Casablanca. That same year, Adil Charkaoui, a Casablanca-based resident who was issued a Security Certificate in Montreal, Canada, was charged with supporting terrorism, and rumours allege he may have played a financial role in the bombings.
Mohsen Sazegara calls himself as Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist. He was the founder of IRGC after the revolution in 1979. He held several offices in the Government of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. He applied to become a candidate for President of Iran in the 2001 election but was declined.
Ali Salem Tamek is a Sahrawi independence activist and trade unionist.
The Independence Intifada or the Second Sahrawi Intifada and also May Intifada is a Sahrawi activist term for a series of disturbances, demonstrations and riots that broke out in May 2005 in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara and south of Morocco. This event has also been called The El-Aaiun Intifada by the same sources.
Ahmad Sa'adat, also known as Abu Ghassan, is a Palestinian militant and Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist–Leninist Palestinian nationalist organisation. Sa'adat graduated in 1975 from the UNRWA Teachers College, Ramallah, specializing in Mathematics. Sa'adat was elected General Secretary of the PFLP by its Central Committee in October 2001, to succeed Abu Ali Mustafa after his assassination by Israel during the Second Intifada.
Adel Fattough Ali Al Gazzar is a citizen of Egypt formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on October 22, 1965, in Cairo, Egypt.
Morocco became a highly repressive country under the absolute monarchy of King Hassan II, and continues to be considered repressive under the reign of King Mohammed VI, though the latter has instituted some reforms. Dozens of journalists, artists, and ordinary citizens are regularly sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for exercising basic rights enjoyed elsewhere in the world, such as freedom of the press, protesting the government, or criticizing government officials. Morocco heavily restricts basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, the right to assembly, and the right to criticize officials. Moroccans also feel the pressures of inflation within the country, such as the lack of basic services like healthcare, clean water, and the difficulty of parents to access quality education for their children. While there have been a handful of reforms that have been generally welcomed internationally, most Moroccans feel this is insufficient, and continue to be unhappy with the trajectory of the country under the policies of King Mohammed VI, despite his transition of the government to an ostensible constitutional monarchy. Notwithstanding this, Morocco has taken substantial steps to improve its human rights record, including introducing new family laws, and bringing about sweeping reforms to enshrine human rights in legislation, protect the independence of the judiciary, safeguard journalists, as well as safeguard the traditions and national identity of Morocco. Under his father, King Hassan II, Morocco had one of the worst human rights records in Africa and the world, especially during the time period known as the "Years Of Lead", which lasted from the early 1960s until the late 1980s; it was a period in the country's history that was known for the brutal repression of political dissent and opposition, that involved wide-scale arrests, arbitrary detention, lengthy imprisonment, and even killings of political opponents. Currently, Morocco continues to face some of these issues, as well as other human rights problems, such as poor prison conditions, the mistreatment of women and the LGBT community, and the widespread use of torture by police. Despite the considerable improvements made in the last several years under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who has rolled back some of his father's harshest decrees, repression of political dissidence, and torture of citizens by officials, is still commonplace in Morocco today.
Mohammed Souleimani Laalami was a citizen of Morocco, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Laalami's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 237. The Department of Defense reports he was born on March 4, 1965, in Casablanca, Morocco.
Aboubakr Jamaï is a Moroccan journalist and banker, and was the publisher of the newspapers Le Journal Hebdomadaire and Assahifa al-Ousbouiya. In 2003, he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri is a Moroccan lawyer and politician of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), and currently the mayor of Marrakesh as well as the Minister of National Planning, Urban Planning, Housing and Urban Policy.
Ḥassan al-Kettani is a Muslim scholar and former political prisoner from Morocco. Imprisoned for alleged connections to the 2003 Casablanca bombings, Kettani was pardoned by Mohammed VI eight years later after efforts by his lawyer and human rights groups, and the success of Islamists in Morocco's parliament.
Ali Anouzla is a Moroccan journalist, known for his critical articles of King Mohammed VI's rule. Since December 2010 he has been the editor-in-chief of the online media platform Lakome, which he co-founded along with Aboubakr Jamaï. Lakome was most notably behind the uncovering of the Daniel Galván scandal in which Mohammed VI was found to have pardoned, as a gesture "demonstrating good relations between him and King Juan Carlos I of Spain" a Spanish serial child rapist sentenced to 30 years in Morocco of which he spent only a year and a half. The scandal led to unprecedented spontaneous demonstrations against the Moroccan monarch in early August 2013. On 17 September 2013, Ali Anouzla was arrested in a raid against his home in Rabat, officially for having linked to an El Pais article which contained a video allegedly posted by AQIM and hosted on the website of the Spanish newspaper. He was later charged with "Knowingly providing material assistance to terrorists acts". Many observers saw this as a revenge for the Daniel Scandal episode.
Noureddine Bensouda is a senior Moroccan civil servant who was the Director of the Direction Générale des Impôts between 1999 and 2010. He since became Director of the Trésorerie Générale du Royaume. Like other influential figures in the Moroccan state, Bensouda was a classmate of Mohammed VI at the Collège Royale in Rabat.
Mustapha Adib is an ex-captain in the Royal Moroccan Air Force. In late 1999, he was arbitrarily detained then imprisoned for 30 months after he denounced corruption in the military.
Abdellatif Hammouchi is the head of the Moroccan national police directorate, the General Directorate for National Security or DGST as well as head of secret services, the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance or DGST.
Rachad Bouhlal is a Moroccan diplomat. He has been the ambassador of Morocco to Japan since 22 December 2016, succeeding Samir Arrour. Prior to his assignment in Japan, he was also ambassador in the United States, in Germany, and in Benelux.
The General Directorate for Studies and Documentation is the foreign intelligence agency of Morocco, under authority of the Administration for National Defense. It is officially tasked with maintaining national security and the safety of national institutions.
Soulaimane Raissouni is a Moroccan journalist, editorialist, and human rights activist. He was working as the chief editor of the newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum, being notable for his editorials, criticizing government corruption and advocating political reform. On May 22, 2020, Raissouni was arrested over charges of “indecent assault” against another man. His arrest triggered a movement of solidarity among his sympathizers, both in Morocco and internationally, alleging that his case is part of a defamation campaign targeting journalists and rights activists critical of Moroccan authorities.
Maati Monjib is a Moroccan university professor, journalist, historian, writer and political activist. Monjib holds two PhDs, one from France in North African politics and another from Senegal on African political history. Monjib is known in Morocco for supporting Moroccan investigative journalism. He has criticized the monarchy in columns in the foreign press in the past and once ran a center that held meetings that included opposition groups.
