Western Saharan activist jailed by Morocco

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The jailing of a Western Sahara human rights defender shows Morocco is continuing to punish peaceful activists, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

Naama Asfari was convicted Aug. 27 for "showing contempt toward a public agent" at a police checkpoint outside the city of Tantan in southern Morocco, an incident that HRW said escalated into a heated exchange of words when Asfari allegedly was ordered to remove a Western Sahara flag from his keychain.

HRW, in a release Monday from Washington, said the Moroccan court sentenced Asfari to four months in prison, while a cousin who was with him during the incident, Ali Roubiou, 21, of Tantan, received only a two month suspended sentence. The group said it was Asfari's third conviction in three years.

"Moroccan authorities keep finding new excuses to lock Asfari up, but it seems that what lies behind it all is his peaceful activism on the Western Sahara," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

HRW said Asfari is the co-chairman of the Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Western Sahara, often traveling to the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara with foreign delegations.