After being held in custody for 96 hours following his arrest on 29 May, the Rif protests’ main figure Nasser Zafzafi and six other activists were placed in pre-trial custody, announced on Tuesday the prosecutor’s office in a communiqué.

Isaac Charia, a member of the detained Rif activists’ defense team, has strongly criticized the heavy charges against protests detainees, calling on the government to “act with rationality.”

“We believe that the list of charges pressed by the public prosecutor, as a representative of the government, proves that the latter has adopted a hard-line vis-à-vis the issue,” Charia told Morocco World News.

Here are the charges:

1- Attacks on the internal security of the State by carrying out an attack aimed at devastation, massacre and looting in several regions

2- Preparation of a conspiracy to undermine the internal security of the State

3- Infringement of the internal security of the State by receiving sums of money, gifts and other advantages to carry out and finance an activity and propaganda aimed at undermining the integrity of the Kingdom and its sovereignty

4- Undermining the loyalty of the citizens towards the Moroccan State and the institutions of the Moroccan people

5- Participation and contribution to the organization of unauthorized demonstrations

6- Holding of public meetings without authorization

7- Participation in armed assembly and acts of violence against law enforcement officers that caused  bloodshed

8- Offense and contribution to the offense to an organized body and to the agents of the public force during the exercise of their functions

9- Public incitement and contribution to the incitement against the territorial integrity of the Kingdom

10- The premeditated interference of worship causing a disorder and disturbing its serenity, [and] participation and incitement to armed revolt and other crimes liable to criminal penalties