Wednesday, 09 July 2014 23:42
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal
: A Moroccan appeals court has upheld the prison sentences of three activists opposed to the operations at the country’s largest silver mine, a campaign group said Wednesday.
Arrested in March on charges including forming a criminal gang, stealing money, holding unauthorised protests and premeditated assault, the accused were each handed three year jail terms in May.
Those sentences were upheld on Monday by the appeals court in Ouarzazate, the group told AFP.
The court also ordered the young men, aged between 21 and 25, to pay 180,000 dirhams (16,000 euros) in damages, added the protest group, whose members are residents of Imider, a Berber village from which the nearby mine takes its name.
The group condemned “the absence of the conditions required for a fair trial”. Neither the mining company nor the authorities could immediately be reached for comment.
Imider lies in a remote, arid region about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from Ouarzazate, and villagers complain that its groundwater levels are drying up due to the amount of water the mine uses to process silver ore.
It is operated by the Metallurgical Society of Imider, a sister group of Managem, which is indirectly controlled by a holding company belonging to Morocco’s royal family.
The jailed activists were arrested on March 1 as they travelled by car to a site where demonstrations against the mining operations have frequently been held in the past three years, the campaign group said.
The protesters complain the exploitation of its natural riches, as well as depleting the region’s scarce water supplies, have also polluted the remaining water reserves and failed to boost development.
In use since 1969, the Imider mining operation produces more than 240 tonnes of silver annually it had a balance sheet of 74 million euros ($97 million) in 2010 and has become emblematic of the frustration felt by residents of the poor region.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2014
