Morocco demands evidence

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani is strongly urging Amnesty International to provide clear and conclusive evidence of allegations that Rabat used an Israeli spy programme to tap journalist Omar Radi's mobile phone. So far, the evidence provided by a prestigious organisation that has been diluting its international credit for certain partisan and sectarian actions for years has not convinced anyone. The accusations linked NSO Group, an Israeli security company, as the provider of a software, Pegasus, capable of inserting spyware into mobile phones. It is a matter of turning on the camera and microphone of the device and being able to access the data. This is not a spy movie where new technologies are capable of almost everything, it is much more because obtaining the data from the journalist's phone is something so unacceptable that it puts Morocco's prestige and credibility in question.  

In Spain these days, we are witnessing a serious case of conspiracy against the police for the use and safekeeping of the mobile phone card of Dina Bousselham, an adviser to Pablo Iglesias. Curiously, Judge Garcia Castellón has given a complete turn to the case because of the evidence obtained and now it is the Iglesias case. Of course, the leader of Podemos political party cannot be compared to the Moroccan journalist, but the point about this kind of conspiracy is that it can be turned against you. The Moroccan Prime Minister is denouncing an unfair international smear campaign by an organisation he accuses of having nothing to do with human rights.  

Harsh words in the official statement to Amnesty International, which decades ago gained respect for its defence of human rights in different dictatorships around the world. Now it is being compromised in a case in which it has not provided the evidence that it previously cared to obtain before making such serious accusations.  

Morocco is a country with a clear democratic vocation during the reign of Mohammed VI that has been consolidated in recent years with constitutional reforms that have reduced the power of the monarch. Our southern neighbour still has some way to go to achieve total democracy, as we also have to go in Spain, where many circumstances are notably damaging to democratic credibility. The Moroccan investigation into the journalist Omar Radi on suspicion of violating state security, due to his links with a liaison officer from a foreign country, must in any case respect the laws and guarantees of the person under investigation, who describes the accusations of having received money for intelligence activities as ridiculous. We are faced with a situation that needs to be clarified yet it occurs in many countries of the world and even threatens the credibility of the President of the United States himself because of Russian influence in the election campaign that brought Trump to the White House. The problem in Morocco and in many other cases is that the damage is done without the necessary evidence.