Rabat: The intervention by law enforcement to prohibit the gatherings called upon by unknown parties during the weekend was carried out in accordance with a balanced approach, preserving public order and guaranteeing the safety of these forces and the gathered people, a security expert said on Monday. In execution of the decision of local authorities prohibiting the gatherings called upon by unknown parties in several Moroccan cities, on the basis of anonymous conversations broadcasted in social media, particularly in a virtual messaging app, law enforcement carried out, on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September, the usual security protocols to ensure the execution of said decision, he told MAP.
According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, the expert pointed out that the prohibition of these public gatherings and any illegal participation in them was the main objective of the security measures adopted by the law enforcement forces, noting that, to this end, units in uniform and others in plain clothes, wearing dist
inctive law enforcement identification, were deployed.
These units were not equipped with any service weapons or the usual means of intervention, such as batons, water cannons, and tear gas grenades, which are considered conventional means of dispersing gatherings. The expert explained that the aim of these measures was to preserve the foundations of public order, without excess or laxity, while ensuring the safety of both law enforcement officers and those gathered in the crowd.
When organizing these gatherings, law enforcement officers first ensured freedom and fluidity of movement on public roads, before issuing three audible warnings using megaphones, as stipulated by law, to ask the gathered crowd to disperse, in accordance with the ban, the same source said. Once the participants had been notified of the ban, law enforcement officers ensured that anyone who refused to comply was removed peacefully, without resorting to any form of legitimate use of force, simply removing them peacefully, to which the
majority of these individuals complied without violence or resistance, he said.
However, a minority of the crowd refused to comply with law enforcement officers, which required them to be arrested and subjected to identity checks, under the supervision of the competent public prosecutors, at the police stations closest to the scene of the intervention, before being released immediately without any restriction on their freedoms, in accordance with the preventive measures provided for by law.
Regarding the measures restricting freedom in police custody applied to certain individuals who gathered in Rabat and Casablanca, the expert explained that these were legal measures ordered by the public prosecutor’s office following the discovery of material and moral evidence of crimes punishable by law committed by certain participants in the gatherings. He noted that the individuals arrested were subject to judicial investigation measures in accordance with the formalities and guarantees provided for by law.
He poin
ted out that no physical injuries or violence against the gathered individuals or law enforcement officers were recorded. Similarly, no material damage to private or public property was observed. The public authorities will not tolerate any threat to public safety or any breach of public order following anonymous online calls on social media that do not comply with the legal procedures governing public gatherings, he stressed.
Violations of civil liberties laws and failure to follow authorization procedures require enforcement of the law, given that law enforcement agencies cannot tolerate anonymous calls for incitement when their origin, the parties making them, and their true motives are unknown, he concluded.