Cairo, August 13, 2009.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), declared today, that the Moroccan Government prevented the entry of Gamal Eid, the Executive director of the Network from entering Morocco. The staff of the Moroccan embassy in Cairo told him « there is no Visa for you here »
The refusal of Gamal Eid’s entry to Morocco, comes after the Governments of Tunisia and Jordan refused his entry to their countries. This makes Morocco the third country, which refuses Eid’s entry to its territory, due to the clear position of the ANHRI Aligned to support freedom of press and freedom of expression and also its criticism of restrictions on these freedoms in the three countries among other Arab states.
Gamal Eid went to the Moroccan embassy to apply for a visa to attend a meeting organized by some of Arab Human Rights Organizations in collaboration with a Danish Human Rights Institution. Mr. Eid has already visited Morocco several times before, most recently in November 2008; however, on the due time to get the visa, he was struck by an officer at embassy in Cairo, giving his passport back to him, saying, « There is no Visa for you here »
Gamal Eid, said; « I was not surprised or amazed to prevent me from entering Tunisia and Jordan, as the former is competes with Saudi Arabia, on the title of the first Arab enemy of freedom of press. As for Jordan it was also expected as the Kingdom was expecting us to be hypocrites while tackling the conditions of freedom of expression. But it was a sad surprise that Morocco refuses to give us the entry Visa, as we used to believe -and still- that the situation is different in Morocco, where, despite the restrictions on freedom of expression, there was still a freedom space had been taken by defenders of freedom of expression, whether bloggers, journalists or civil society, to criticize or take different positions and views from the government, without governmental resorting to the this new approach ».
The Network can not find a reason for this arbitrary denial of entry to a human rights activist but ANHRI’s and clear bias of the freedom of press and freedom of expression without courtesy or hypocrisy.
The Arabic network said, « Despite being angry and deeply disturbed by this procedure, we hope that this mistake can be corrected in future, but we will not stop supporting freedom of press and freedom of expression. We will not also stop criticizing the restrictions on these freedoms, as we do regarding all violations, whether in Morocco or in any Arab country. ANHRI believes that freedom of press is a basic right of the citizens that must be respected and defended, and not a gift from governments. »
More Information on the prevention of entry of Jordan;
http://www.anhri.net/en/reports/2008/pr1216.shtml
More information on the prevention of entry of Tunisia;
http://www.anhri.net/ifex/wsis/07/pr0411.shtml
