ISMAIL
LGHAZAOUI

Background and Work

Ismail Lghazaoui is an agricultural engineer based in Casablanca. Since 2023 he has been active in Morocco's pro-Palestine solidarity movement, organising boycott campaigns and street protests in response to the war in Gaza. His activism centres on two international campaigns: the boycott of Carrefour, launched by Palestinian civil-society groups and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a form of non-violent pressure on multinational firms doing business with Israel, and the "Mask off Maersk" campaign, which targets the Danish shipping giant Maersk for its role in transporting weapons to Israel.

Lghazaoui uses social media to amplify calls for consumer boycotts and to mobilise participants for demonstrations. His posts denounce Morocco's 2020 normalisation agreement with Israel, brokered by the United States in exchange for American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. That agreement remains deeply controversial among Moroccans who support Palestinian self-determination.

The Arrest

On 25 October 2024, Moroccan police arrested Lghazaoui in Casablanca while he was en route to a demonstration planned outside the United States consulate. The protest was organised to condemn American support for Israeli military operations in Gaza. He was detained and charged under Article 267-5 of Morocco's criminal code, which criminalises "inciting to commit felonies and misdemeanors by electronic means."

Neither the prosecutor nor the court identified which specific felony or misdemeanour Lghazaoui was accused of inciting. The charge appears to have been based on his social-media activity promoting the Carrefour and Maersk boycott campaigns.

Legal Proceedings

On 10 December 2024, the Court of First Instance in Casablanca convicted Lghazaoui and sentenced him to one year in prison and a fine of 5,000 Moroccan dirhams (approximately €478). The trial lasted less than two months from arrest to verdict. The proceedings offered no clarity on which posts or statements formed the basis of the prosecution.

Lghazaoui appealed the conviction. On 28 January 2025, the Casablanca Court of Appeals scheduled 5 February 2025 as the date for its ruling. On that date, the appeals court reduced the sentence to four months: two months enforced and two months suspended. Because Lghazaoui had already served nearly two months in detention, he was released immediately. The conviction, however, was upheld.

International Response

Lghazaoui's case is one of dozens of prosecutions brought by Moroccan authorities against pro-Palestine activists since 2023. The charge of "inciting" offences via electronic means has become a standard tool for silencing online advocacy. The lack of specificity in the charges against Lghazaoui — no identified felony, no named victim, no alleged harm — underscores the use of the criminal code to punish political speech rather than to prosecute genuine criminal conduct.

His release does not erase the two months he spent in detention, nor the chilling effect his prosecution has on others coordinating boycott campaigns and solidarity protests in Morocco.