University on the threshold a starvation strike as a take a trip ban lifted

Moroccan academic Amati Omni suspended its three-week hunger strike after authorities completed a travel ban imposed on him. But he was accused of destabilizing the state security and may face up to five years in prison.

"I have suspended my hunger strike on October 29 after the court's decision to bring me back my freedom to travel outside Morocco," 55-year-old Omni, a professor of political history at the Institute of African Studies at Mohamed V University in Rabat, the letter said.

"But my battle is not over, because I was invited to the Tribunal [Tribunal de première instance de Rabat] November 19," said Omni, adding that he was "accused of destabilizing national security on the basis of Article 206 of the Moroccan Penal Code."

Omni, who is also a member of the scientific committee of Senegal-based Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa or CODESRIA, was on a hunger strike since 6 October after it was in Casablanca airport authorities prevented from traveling to Norway to attend the seminar on 10 August.

In September, he was invited by the National Brigade of the Judicial Police and the accused, among other things, of endangering state security.

According to his lawyer Abderrahim Jami, Omni faces charges of receiving foreign funds to destabilize the Moroccans trust in its institutions and threats to national security.

Moroccan authorities said the ban was due to "financial violations" that occurred during the Bin Rushed Omni headed the institute, who coached Moroccan journalists in investigative techniques and citizen journalism. Omni reportedly closed the institute in December last year ", after repeated government interference," the AP reported.

Omni also thanked the local, regional and international support provided to him on an individual and institutional level. "It's a boost for me, and it's a great support, and I was deeply moved," he said in the letter.

Several international institutions with a core mandate to promote academic and intellectual freedom protested against the harassment of Omni, including CODESRIA, the Middle East Studies Association and freedom now.

International responses

Front line defenders, Ireland International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, was "deeply concerned about the allegations against Amati Omni," according to a statement on October 30

The foundation said on 19 November Omni trial and other human rights defenders: "If the charge 'threatens the internal security of the state" is confirmed, Amati Omni, His ham Almeria, Salad I ache, Wickham Missouri Mohamed Elsa to face five years in prison, according Article 206 of the Criminal Code of Morocco. "

Omni International Committee of Support Amati said he was pleased by the decision of the court to obtain Omni restore freedom to travel outside Morocco.

But it would at the end of "a campaign of slander and all baseless accusations against Omni, all intimidation and harassment by targeting all," said Abdullah Hammond, chairman of the committee and professor of anthropology at Princeton University in the United States.

"This committee will continue to support Amati Omni and remain vigilant," he stressed.