The government of Morocco on Monday expressed its great astonishment at the publication by foreign newspapers gathered under a group called “Forbidden stories,” of erroneous information in which their authors falsely claim that Morocco has infiltrated the telephones of several national and foreign public figures and officials of international organizations through a computer software.
In a statement, the government said it categorically rejects and condemns these false allegations, which are completely unfounded, as it has done with previous similar allegations by Amnesty International.
Morocco is a state governed by the rule of law, which guarantees the secrecy of personal communications by the force of the Constitution and by virtue of the Kingdom’s treaty commitments and judicial and non-judicial laws and mechanisms guaranteeing the protection of personal data and cyber security to all citizens and foreign residents in Morocco,” the statement said.
The government added that it is not allowed, by the force of the Constitution, to access or publish, in whole or in part, the content of personal communications or to use them against anyone except by order of the independent judiciary and in accordance with the conditions and modalities provided for by the law. Law enforcement agencies are obliged to comply with its provisions and may not act outside its framework.
The communiqué also stated that the government has never acquired computer software to infiltrate communication devices, nor have the Moroccan authorities ever resorted to such acts, adding that the media collective, in all the press articles it has disseminated, has so far been unable to provide evidence to support its allegations.
Aware of the ulterior motives and aims behind the dissemination of these false allegations and their context, the Moroccan government challenges the above-mentioned collective, as it did with Amnesty International, to provide realistic and scientific evidence that can be subject to professional, impartial and independent expertise and counter-expertise on the veracity of these allegations.
The executive reserves the right to take the measures it deems appropriate in the face of the false allegations made by the above-mentioned collective, which are aimed at damaging the country’s image, its achievements in the field of fundamental rights and freedoms, its status and its supreme interests, the statement concluded.
HA/lb/abj/APA