The Moroccan pro-democracy movement known as February 20 has called for the organization of a picnic today near what activists say is a secret detention center located in Temara, in the outskirts of the capital Rabat.
The peaceful gathering was violently broken up by Moroccan anti-riot police which used truncheons to disperse the crowd.
Activists were then chased in the streets of Hay Riad, a neighborhood of the capital Rabat.
Many witnesses I spoke to on the phone expressed disbelief at the disproportionate police deployment and the violent, unwarranted, unprovoked repression of pro-democracy activists, leaving hundreds wounded, some seriously beaten in the head and nose.
Hisham Almiraat 