Moroccan opponent serfaty returns home

Abraham Serfaty, a Moroccan opposition figure returned home on Thursday night after King Mohammed VI responded positively to his request to come back to Morocco.

73-year-old Serfaty, who was accompanied by his spouse Christine Daure Serfaty, was welcomed at the Rabat-Sale airport by Minister of Justice Omar Azziman.

Earlier in the afternoon, the spokesman for the royal palace, Hassan Aourid, had announced that King Mohammed VI authorized Serfaty to return to Morocco in response to a letter --dated September 21-- wherein Serfaty appealed to the sovereign to "enable him to return home to resume his place in the process under way, for the building of a modern and democratic Morocco, under His Majesty's leadership..." and that he was "sharing the hope that the whole Moroccan people were pinning on His Majesty the King."

The king responded positively to this request and authorized Serfaty to return to Morocco, the royal palace spokesman said.

Upon arrival in the airport, Serfaty expressed thanks to the sovereign for having enabled him to return to Morocco "immediately." "This is a great day for me and for Christine," he said.

After he paid tribute to the role of the Moroccan civil society in modernizing the kingdom, Serfaty said that he was ready to contribute in the process under way and that he remains at the disposal of the Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi.

He added that in view of his age, he is not planning to exercise "a direct political activity" deeming that his role is to help the Moroccan civil society.

Serfaty, a native of Casablanca, had been expelled to France in 1991 after he spent 17 years in prison under the charge of attempt to the state security.