RABAT: A leader of protests that began last December in the northeastern Moroccan town of Jerada was arrested on Saturday, the prosecution and a rights group said.
Mustapha Dainane was arrested following a traffic accident on Thursday, according to a statement from the general prosecutor’s office in the nearby town of Oujda. The arrest “has no connection with the events in the city of Jerada,” it said.
The activist, who gained popularity during demonstrations in the former coal mining town, remained in detention as of early Sunday, Said Zeroual, a local representative of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), told AFP.
The accidental deaths in December of two brothers trapped in a mine shaft, followed by two other deaths under similar circumstances, gave rise to calls demanding “economic alternatives” for the former coal mining town.
Thousands of people have left the city since Jerada’s coal mines, once its economic lifeblood, were shuttered in the late 1990s.
Hundreds of illegal miners risk their lives in closed mine shafts to extract coal, the sale of which is legal thanks to operating permits issued by Moroccan authorities.
An action plan proposed by the government, which includes care for former miners with lung disease and inspections of closed mines, succeeded in briefly calming social unrest. But protests and calls for a general strike have continued.
Protest leader in Morocco’s Jerada arrested
Protest leader in Morocco’s Jerada arrested
