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Meeting With International Rights Group Canceled By Moroccan King
CASABLANCA (IslamOnline and News Agencies) - Scheduled talks to be held between King Mohammed VI and a group from the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) were cancelled suddenly on Friday, according to president of the FIDH, Patrick Baudoin.
In response to the cancellation, Baudoin said that a "reception by the king had been due for [Thursday] but on the eve of it, we're told he cannot see us because of his schedule."
If the king wished to resume the talks and "propose this again", then the FIDH would agree, added Baudoin.
In recognition of the Moroccan kingdom's meager history of human rights, the FIDH has been holding it's 34th congress in the northern Moroccan city - an event that has been both praised and shunned.
Ahmed Marzouki, a detainee from 1973 to 1991 in the Tazmamart jail, was one of a group of 58 military officials accused of plotting attacks against the late King Hassan II.
Baudoin urged the government on Friday to grant Marzouki a passport so he can freely travel and inform others of his detention experiences and his book titled "Tazmamart, cell no 10."
"I call on the Moroccan authorities to give him a passport so he can go to France and elsewhere to give testimony, his own," Baudoin said.
A group of Moroccan opposition figures issued a statement in Paris that criticized a ban that prevented Marzouki from traveling to France and take part in a television debate, where Moroccan writer Tahar Benjelloun is due to participate.
"In Ahmed Marzouki's words, there is no basic animosity, but simply the things that need saying and which reflect what is vile," Baudoin said, as he described Marzouki's book as a work of "dignity, modesty, greatness and respect."
Opposition figures in hope for more tolerance in Morocco, criticized the FIDH for holding its conference.
The meeting, which is the first by the federation in an Arab nation, as claimed by Baudoin, is not in endorsement of the regime, but said it was an opportunity for the FIDH to put pressure on it.
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