RABAT: Morocco’s youth movement calling for political reforms announced Wednesday that it would stage a protest “picnic” on May 15 near a secret detention center where human rights groups say people have been tortured.
“This picnic will be organized in front of the Temara secret detention center as part of a day of action against such detentions,” the group known as the Feb. 20 Movement said in statement sent to AFP.
“With this peaceful action, the Feb. 20 Movement is demanding that those responsible for torture and serious violations of human rights be brought to justice,” the statement said.

Organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have denounced the existence of the detention center at Temara, near the capital Rabat.
According to HRW, the center is run by the Moroccan intelligence services and many people suspected of terrorism, including Islamists, have been tortured there, especially after the 2003 suicide attacks in Casablanca that left 44 dead including 13 suicide bombers.
Moroccan intelligence agents “actively take part in the incarceration of people suspected of terrorism, in their detention and interrogation,” HRW has said.
Sunday’s picnic including a protest will take place in the forest surrounding the DST headquarters, said the largely youth movement, inspired by the pro-democracy protests in the Arab world and named after the date of its first demonstration.

In response, Morocco’s King Mohammad VI in March announced comprehensive constitutional reforms.
However, demonstrations have continued and one Sunday in Marrakesh drew several thousand people protesting against terrorism and calling for democratic reforms “as the best way to fight against violence,” the protesters said.
A bomb attack on April 28 in Marrakesh at a cafe popular with tourists killed 17 people, including 13 foreigners.