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HRW urges court to free Moroccan sentenced over protest call

Human Rights Watch urged Moroccan authorities on Friday to free a man handed jail time for calling for protests over the navy's shooting dead of a 22-year-old student.

A Moroccan navy boat patrols the waters off Tangiers

Soufian al-Nguad posted the call on Facebook after the navy opened fire on a speedboat attempting to carry migrants to Spain in September, killing Hayat Belkacem.

A court in the northern city of Tetouan in October sentenced 29-year-old Nguad, part-owner of an estate agency, to two years in jail and a fine of 20,000 dirhams ($2,000 or 1,900 euros) for inciting people to take part in unauthorised protests.

His appeal is underway and another hearing is due on Monday, HRW said.

The New York-based NGO's Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson called the charges against him "illegitimate".

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"Soufian al-Nguad did nothing but express his anger and urge protests over the killing of an innocent woman," she said in a statement.

"He should be freed immediately."

Belkacem's killing sparked anger in the North African kingdom, where internet users hailed her as a "martyr" and said her only crime was attempting to leave a miserable life in Morocco to help her family.

The interior ministry said the navy had found the boat off the northern locality of M'diq-Fnideq acting "in a suspicious manner" and refusing to comply with orders.

Three other Moroccans were wounded, one critically, during the assault. The boat's Spanish pilot was arrested.

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HRW said there was "no evidence at all to suggest that the passengers were a security risk to anyone".

In a Facebook post, Nguad slammed the "silence" of political figures and urged people to join a protest organised by supporters of a local football team.

HRW slammed the charges against him as an attack on his freedom of expression.

Morocco, a key route for sub-Saharan Africans trying to reach Europe, said it foiled tens of thousands of clandestine bids last year to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

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