Morocco sentences 18 people over Gen Z protests

RABAT: Morocco handed prison terms to more than a dozen people arrested during youth-led protests last year, after convicting them of obstructing traffic, their lawyers said on Friday.
The Gen Z movement, which took the usually stable kingdom by surprise in late September 2025, demanded sweeping reforms in public health care and education.
A court in Casablanca sentenced 18 people in total, with 13 of them given eight-month prison terms. They were due to be released on Friday after completing their sentences, defense lawyer Souad Brahma told AFP.
Two others received one-year sentences with 10 months behind bars, while three defendants who had been freed pending their trial were given suspended 12-month terms, the lawyer added.
In the same case, six minors are due to appear in court on June 19, another lawyer, El Hassan Essonni, told AFP. Four of them were held in pretrial detention and two released pending trial.
More than 2,400 people have faced prosecution over the protests, while over 1,400 were already in detention by October of last year, according to the public prosecutor’s office.
In the initial days of the protests, when the gatherings were banned, police made hundreds of arrests.
Two nights were marked by violence, including in Agadir, where three people were killed in clashes, though organizers insisted on their commitment to nonviolent protest.