Morocco quashes jail protest with force - activists

Reuters:

* 30 injured in prison protest - human rights activists

* Accused Islamists arrested after attacks in 2003, 2011

* Prisoners accuse government of torture

By Souhail Karam

SALE, Morocco, May 16 (Reuters) - Moroccan authorities used tear gas and truncheons on Monday to put down a prison protest by accused Islamists who climbed on a roof demanding pardon or review of their cases, human rights activists said.

Around 150 people took part in the protest at Zaki prison in Sale, northeast of the capital Rabat. At least 30 were injured including one who fell from the roof, said Binothmane Reda, a member of a coordination committee for ex-Islamist detainees.

The prisoners' grievances include detailed allegations of torture and arbitrary treatment. The government says it treats detainees in strict accordance with the law.

"They want the government to deliver on its promise to review the trials or to free them," said Reda, adding that he spoke to prisoners by phone inside the prison. There was no immediate comment from authorities.  

At least 324 people accused of belonging to an Islamic militant group are detained at Zaki. Some were detained after a suicide bomb attack in Casablanca in 2003 that killed 33 people.

Others were detained after a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh on April 28 that killed 17 people including eight French nationals.

"They (authorities) have been using tear gas for more than four hours now," Mohamed Haqiqi, chairman of the Karama human rights forum, told Reuters of the scene inside the prison.

Morocco has been scene to pro-reform protests linked to uprisings this year as part of the Arab Spring movement.

It freed 92 political prisoners in April under a pardon issued by King Mohammed following protests demanding democratic reform. The majority of those freed or whose sentences were reduced were members of the Islamist Salafist Jihad group.

Tear gas could be heard being fired inside the prison grounds and the gas wafted onto the street. At least 23 security force vehicles and a water cannon truck were seen outside, a Reuters witness said.

(Writing by Matthew Bigg)