AI Acting SG Did Not Provide in her Response Tangible Evidence that the Moroccan Government Has Requested: El Otmani

Rabat - Head of Government, Saad Edine El Otmani, said Friday that the response of the acting Secretary General of Amnesty International (AI), Julie Verhaar, did not provide tangible evidence that the Moroccan government has been demanding from this international organization since the publication of its report that contained accusations and which was accompanied by an international defamatory media campaign. “We, in the Moroccan government, are still insisting on providing us with a copy of the report of scientific expertise that was adopted to make these unfounded accusations, or publishing it to the public, instead of issuing a report full of expressions referring to hypotheses that contradict the standards of scientific expertise, which makes of the judgments contained in the report, in the form of assertion, mere expressions that lack any scientific basis to prove the association of the supposed breaches of specific phones in Morocco,” El Otmani told MAP.

Morocco, which has adopted in this issue a responsible, logical and transparent approach with AI that is based on arguments and scientific evidence, remains open to constructive dialogue that requires from Amnesty International presenting tangible evidence of its allegations or review its position as an indication of goodwill to rebuild trust, which is essential to ensure the success of any dialogue, he pointed out. El Otmani said he had received, on Thursday evening, a reply letter from Mrs. Julie Verhaar, in response to "our letter which was sent to her on July 1st, 2020, in which we request to provide us with evidences for the accusations and allegations contained in the organization's report issued on June 22, 2020."