Moroccan union decries arrest of two leaders
The Moroccan Labor Union (UMT) denounced the arrest of two of its leaders on Tuesday in Rabat.
The arrest is a blatant act of reprisal following the strike staged Tuesday by jobless engineers, UMT said in a release.
The arrested leaders are Abdelhamid Amine, member of UMT national bureau and Abderrahim Handouf, secretary-general of the national agriculture federation, a UMT offshoot.
The UMT, which requested the immediate release of the two leaders, said their arrest is "a new attempt to unionist freedom."
Jobless engineers and doctors tried to stage a demonstration Tuesday in Rabat's main avenues, but the police intervened to disperse the crowd. The authorities said the demonstration was not authorized.
