RABAT -- Moroccan riot police arrested four family members of the head of the country's leading Islamist group in Rabat on Sunday after breaking up a sit-in by hundreds of Islamists.
Less than 24 hours after a similar police action in which 41 human rights activists were arrested, Reuters correspondents saw police beating scores of young protesters and arresting dozens of them aged between 19 and 24.
The protesters were all members of the outlawed Al-Adl Wal Ihsane (justice and charity) Muslim fundamentalist group, who had gathered in the capital's central Alawite Square.
"Allah-o-Akbar (God Is the Greatest)! We will continue the struggle for our rights and our freedom," scores of bearded young men chanted, surrounded by riot police.
Those arrested included the group's leading figure Nadia Yassine, daughter of the group's spiritual chief Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine.
His eldest son Kamil, another daughter Meryem and his wife were also detained, human rights officials said.
The group organized similar demonstrations in which police intervened in other cities such as Casablanca, Fes, Agadir, Oujda, Tangiers, Tetouan and Marrakesh.
The gatherings marked the anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights and demanded the legalization of the Al-Adl Wal Ihsane Movement and the restoration of its newspapers, which have been banned for more than a decade.
(Reuter)