Attacking Morocco will not restore European Parliament’s credibility

The European Parliament has exposed itself as a corrupt institution full of hypocrites’ intent on outsourcing the blame to clean themselves even at the cost of undermining what used to be a privileged partnership with Morocco.

The anti-Morocco resolution- adopted last month and wrongly sugarcoated in press freedom and human rights concerns- is but the symptom of a neo-colonial arrogant attitude permeated by double standards and a quest to polish the image of a legislative institution suffering from increasingly low turnout, leaving it prey to corruptible extremist and miniscule European voices.

After three years of being convicted on rape and sexual assault charges, members of the European Parliament held a majority vote to dismiss the case as a freedom of expression trial in a blatant disrespect for the rights of the plaintiffs who suffered abuse by the three journalists the resolution defends: Taoufiq Bouachrine, Omar Radi and Soulimane Raisouni.

One of the lawyers of the victims, Aicha Guelaa told a conference at the Moroccan parliament there were many victims filmed while abused and blackmailed by Bouachrine.

A particular abhorrent video of Bouachrine sexually abusing a pregnant woman who worked for him was shown at court during his trial.

The MEP’s logic is flawed and their manipulation by anti-Moroccan circles is starkly evident. The European Parliament already reached a conclusion and was just looking for facts that it couldn’t find unless it politicized or distorted penal code matters into a freedom of expression issue.

In Algeria, freedom of expression assault is ongoing in full sight of the European Parliament and its acolytes: Human Rights Watch and Amnesty international. But not a single resolution was made.

European Parliament gate

Using Morocco as a scapegoat will not clean the European Parliament whose members are facing judicial investigation on graft.

“What should have been called a European Parliament Gate is wrongly called Qatar gate or Morocco gate to put the blame on others instead of looking at their own wrongdoing,” said head of Morocco’s USFP parliamentary group at the conference held at the Moroccan parliament.

In a haste to pin the blame on Morocco for its own MEP’s endemic corruption, the European Parliament turned a blind eye to ethics and set its eyes on condemning Morocco and interfering in its domestic affairs in a patronizing way that has nothing to do with the spirit of bilateral partnership.

Prior to issuing its anti-Morocco resolution, it refused to listen to the victim of Omar Radi, his colleague Hafsa Boutahar who traveled to Strasbourg to make her voice heard.

The conference at the Moroccan parliament featured a video by Khadijatou Mahmoud, another rape victim of Brahim Ghali. She was also denied the right to be heard by the European Parliament.

Stab in Morocco’s back

Leaders of Moroccan parliamentary groups deplored that the resolution came in a series of attacks on Morocco going as far as organizing and instigating miniscule voices advocating separatism in the Rif.

Moroccan MPs had requested that any issue involving Morocco should have been examined by the joint parliamentary group instead of jumping to a plenary, but they said that the sway of hostility to Morocco made it impossible as the European parliament becomes increasingly a launchpad for all anti-Moroccan rhetoric in Europe.

Head of PAM parliamentary group pointed to the activism of French MEP in particular as penholders of the anti-Moroccan resolution.

He expressed disappointment to see the European Parliament promote violence against Moroccans by hosting Sultana Khaya who introduces herself as a human rights activists where in fact she is an ardent supporter of the Polisario’s destabilizing acts and has not shied away from taking photographs holding AK47 in Algeria’s Tindouf camps.

The same Khaya together with another pro-separatist Aminatou Haidar have been using Moroccan passports unhindered for decades to travel abroad and insult Morocco, said another conference participant.

France which lost its friends in the Sahel due to its arrogance is making the same mistake with Morocco, participants in the conference said.