Grandson of Rif Battle hero denies Spanish paper allegations

Omar Khattabi, grandson of the hero of the Anwal battle against the Spanish occupiers in 1921, denied allegations published Friday by Spanish "El Mundo" daily and stressed he has never made any statement to this paper.

Omar Khattabi denounced in a clarification sent to MAP "the lightness of the Spanish daily," which misquoted him as saying that his grandfather preferred to deal with the Spanish than to deal the kings of Morocco.

The clarification also denounced the comments made by Moroccan weekly "Al Ayyam" which wrote "Omar Khattabbi denies the legacy of his grandfather."

He also deems that the Moroccan weekly articles is not objective and does not meet the professional criteria which exact that the publication should contact a person before publishing this kind of article and making arbitrary judgments.

The valuable legacy of d'Abdelkrim Khattabi shall not be tarnished by libellous and irresponsible articles, he wrote.