Morocco recalls Netherlands envoy over dissident issue

Dutch accused of not acting against Moroccan resident funding civil unrest back home

Morocco has recalled its ambassador in The Hague after accusing Dutch authorities of failing to take action against a Moroccan who is residing in the Netherlands and funding civil unrest back home, the foreign ministry said yesterday.

Morocco’s foreign minister named the man as Saeed Chaaou, a 50-year-old former parliamentarian from Morocco’s northern Rif region, who has been the subject of two arrest warrants accusing him of criminal association and international drug trafficking, issued by a Moroccan court in 2010 and 2015.

The Moroccan statement did not directly accuse Chaaou of organising recent protests in the north of the country, but suggested he was involved in supporting unrest in Rif. “Specific information has been provided to the Dutch authorities for several months regarding the involvement of this trafficker in financing and providing logistical support to certain sectors in northern Morocco,” the ministry said.

“It was made clear to the Dutch authorities that it is imperative that concrete and urgent measures be taken.”

The statement did not name the man, but Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told Reuters it referred to Chaaou. Chaaou or his lawyer could not be contacted.

‘Unnecessary’

In a joint statement on their websites, the Netherlands Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Security and Justice dismissed Morocco’s decision to recall its ambassador as “incomprehensible and unnecessary”.

A day before Morocco’s move, Chaaou streamed a nearly two-hour live video on his Facebook page in which he criticised Moroccan officials for their treatment of his native Rif. The video was viewed more than 120,000 times.

One senior official said Moroccan authorities had in the past arrested and sentenced a Moroccan national on the request of the Netherlands for a crime committed there.