Morocco: LGBT+ people arrested after calling police for help
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Update – October 5, 2026: A court in Morocco sentenced seven of the people arrested after they called the police for help to eight months in prison, to be served immediately, and another to three months, suspended. They now are in prison on a verdict reached without anyone to argue their side. The next chance is the appeal, and it will only mean something if lawyers are in the room. Sign and share now, before the appeal.
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In Fez, Morocco, a mob gathered outside a home in the Lirak neighborhood on August 19 and attacked the people living there with insults, threats, and stones. The residents called the police for help. When officers arrived, they arrested ten of the LGBT+ people who lived there, not the people who attacked them.
Several of those arrested say they were humiliated because of how they looked and pressured to sign police statements they were not able to read or understand. Videos and posts identifying them then spread online, fueling more threats. A nationwide strike by lawyers meant no legal team could represent them at their first court hearing on August 24. Their case has been adjourned to September 7, and a defense team has now been secured, but only after urgent, last-minute efforts by a support committee working on their behalf.
This case is part of a wider pattern in Morocco, where queer and trans people, sex workers, and others are increasingly policed and exposed in the name of protecting so-called public morality. Morocco's Article 489 punishes consensual acts between people of the same sex with up to three years in prison, and police routinely treat things like shared housing or a relationship as evidence for that charge. That means someone can end up in court not for anything they did to another person, but for who they live with.
Morocco's Minister of Justice can guarantee these people have real legal representation, order an investigation into the mob attack and the online exposure that followed it, and ensure no one is prosecuted simply for their identity or who they love. Add your name to tell him the world is watching this case.
On August 19, a mob gathered outside a home in the Lirak neighborhood of Fez and attacked the people living there with insults, threats, and stones. The residents called the police for help. Officers arrested ten LGBT+ people living there instead of the people who attacked them. Several say they were humiliated and pressured to sign statements they could not read or understand. A nationwide lawyers' strike meant no legal team could represent them at their first hearing on August 24. Their case has been adjourned to September 7.
Morocco's constitution protects the right to privacy, and Morocco has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guards against arbitrary detention and unequal treatment before the law. We ask you to act on those commitments in this case.
Specifically, we ask you to:
Release anyone detained because of their gender identity or expression, or because of consensual relationships between adults.
Guarantee full, independent legal representation and real access to the case file for everyone involved.
Investigate the mob attack itself, along with the online posts that named and exposed those arrested, and ensure the people who reported the attack are protected, not punished for it.
End the practice of treating someone's appearance, gender expression, or shared housing as grounds for suspicion, search, or prosecution.
The repeal of Articles 489, 490, and 491 of the Penal Code, which criminalize consensual relations between adults and are being used to justify cases like this one.
The review of Article 483 concerning so-called “public indecency,” and an end to its use to prosecute people on the basis of their appearance, identity or gender expression.
No one should be attacked in their own home and then arrested for it. We ask you to make sure that is not what happens here.
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