Moroccan authorities have banned Dutch politicians and MEP Kati Piri and the former Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen, from traveling to the Rif region as part of an "investigation commission", said by the news agency EFE. In a statement issued yesterday morning from Morocco, Kati Piri and Lilianne Ploumen, both members of the Labor Party, indicate that the local authorities "prevented [them] from accessing the city of Al Hoceïma", where they had planned to meet the families of the detainees, imprisoned since last year for their participation in the Hirak demonstrations. "Our visit was announced two months ago. However, we were warned last night that we could not continue this part of our program", said the two officials, adding that the authorities have invited them to visit the Rif "at a later date". EFE indicated that until now, no official Moroccan source has commented on this. Kati Piri and Lilianne Ploumen said, in their statement, that they attended the trial of Hirak activists in Casablanca on Monday, and met in court with members of the detainees' families and their lawyers. They also met in Rabat with the Minister of Justice, Mohamed Aujjar, the head of the public prosecutor, Mohamed Abdennabaoui, and some Moroccan parliamentarians. For record, Kati Piri held a meeting last February at the European Parliament in Brussels, which was attended by several families of detainees, including the father of Nasser Zefzafi, Ahmed Zefzafi, lawyers and Rifan militants.
