All praise to the Merciful and Compassionate, and peace and blessings on our beloved prophet Muhammad.
Today is a day of joy! My sister’s brother in-law has been released from prison after serving 3 years as a political detainee. He had been sentenced to 20 years, then 10 years after appealing. Words can’t describe the immense waves of joy that are washing over his family and loved ones.
Here is a photo take from Hespress.com (Moroccan online news site). Abad is holding his son on the left and my little nephew on the right. His son is 9 years old, and hasn’t seen his father out of prison since he was 6. I think they are all pretty stunned. They are at a press conference immediately following Abad’s release.
I thank God the Merciful. I thank the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen who are risking their lives so that things change on a deep level, so that no more people will be imprisoned for political reasons. I thank the people of Morocco who protested peacefully to bring about change. I thank the King of Morocco for initiating the constitutional reform that lead to the freeing of these detainees. I thank the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) which recommended the pardons to the king.
I had written about Abad’s case a little on this blog a year ago (when he had undertaken an 18 day hunger strike, here and here), but then stopped doing so because there was no good news to report. How about this for a happy ending?!
It’s wonderful and momentous to feel the winds of change blowing through this land.
Life in Marrakesh 