Hirak detainee Rabii Al Ablak, currently serving a five-year sentence for «spreading fake news» and «posing as a journalist», has suspended his hunger strike, Morocco's National Human Rights Council (CNDH) said on Thursday. A source within the national institution for the protection and promotion of human rights said that the news was announced to the mother of the citizen-journalist through a phone call. The same source recalls that the mother of Rabii Al Ablak has managed to visit her son with the president of CNDH's regional president in Tangier. Last week, Rabii Al Ablak was admitted to a prison clinic in Tangier after a seven-week hunger strike, his brother and lawyer told Reuters. «He was admitted yesterday night to the prison's clinic after his health deteriorated», his brother Abdellatif said. «He couldn't even walk when the lawyer came to visit him this morning» he added, calling for immediate action to save his life. His lawyer Souad Brahma assured that Al Ablak lost a lot of weight and was «unable to stand». The General Administration of Prison and Rehabilitation Administration (DGAPR) explained in a press release that Al Ablak had never informed them that he was on a hunger strike and that his daily activities showed that «his health condition is normal». For the record, Rabii Al Ablak is one of the six citizen-journalists arrested in 2017 for covering Hirak protests in the Rif region. His sentence was upheld by an appeal court in June 2018.
