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CASABLANCA, Morocco — They may have fallen just short of reaching the World Cup final, but Moroccans on Wednesday hailed their team's historic run as it ended with a 2-0 defeat to reigning champions France.

"They played a great game but luck wasn't on our side," said supporter Oussama Abdouh in Casablanca. 

"Still, we stood up to the title-holders, that was great.

"Beyond the World Cup, this team made us dream until the end, and just for that, I raise my hat to them."

But for Hakim Salama, the 2-0 defeat to France was too much.

"We missed the opportunity of the century," he said.

Rain lashed the capital Rabat on Wednesday evening and the atmosphere was far from the exhilaration of the historic victories that brought the Lions of the Atlas to within sight of a World Cup final, the first Arab or African team to ever get so far.

This time, the car horns and drummers were muted.

"The national team has been performing miracles since the start of the World Cup," Rachid Sabbiq, a street trader in the working-class Derb Sultan district of Casablanca, said before the match.

"It doesn't matter whether they win or lose — they've won the respect and admiration of all Moroccans, and that's priceless," he said.

Sabbiq had swapped his usual fare of sweets to sell Moroccan flags.

Despite the loss, ruler King Mohammed VI sent his "warm congratulations" to the whole team for having "honoured the Moroccan people", according to the country's national news agency MAP. 

The king also conveyed a congratulatory message to French President Emmanuel Macron by telephone post-match, the news agency said. 

‘They make us dream’ 

One of the oldest neighbourhoods in Casablanca, Derb Sultan was a bastion of resistance against colonial authorities when the North African kingdom was a French protectorate from 1912 until 1956. 

It also gave rise to one of Morocco’s top teams, Raja de Casablanca, and is the birthplace of legendary striker Mohamed Jarir (alias “Houmane”), who in 1970 became the first Moroccan ever to score in the World Cup.

“In this neighbourhood, we love football, so of course the national team’s victories make us dream,” said teenager Mohamed Nadifi, a teenager whose idol is winger Sofiane Boufal.

All over Morocco, shops have been selling team jerseys and flags.

“Not only have the Lions made us happy but they also allowed us to get business going again” despite rough economic times for many Moroccans, said trader Khalid Alaoui.

Touria Matrougui braved cold and torrential rain to buy jerseys for her four nephews.

“They held the Moroccan flag high, and for that, we can never thank them enough,” she said.

International support 

The team’s success has also won it support far across the continent. 

“Morocco has made an entire continent proud,” said Sidibey Zoumana, from the Ivory Coast, who has lived in the country since 2018.

“I’ve been watching their progress as if it was my own country.”

From Gaza to Senegal, the team’s success has transformed the image of Morocco.

“They proved that an African team can go places, and really compete,” said Said Mouhssine, 48, after the match.

For others, the match had a taste of politics, coming in the middle of a diplomatic spat between Paris and Rabat over the ever-contentious Western Sahara issue.

Some fans were doubly disappointed, as national carrier Royal Air Maroc was forced to cancel extra flights for fans to Qatar just hours after announcing them.

Other supporters who had already reached the Gulf state were unable to get tickets they had been promised.

Some accused staff at the Moroccan Football Federation of handing out the coveted passes to friends and families.

TUNIS — Tunisians go to the polls on Saturday to elect a parliament largely stripped of its powers, under a hyper-presidential system installed by the head of state Kais Saied after his power grab last year. 

Over a decade since Tunisia's popular revolution unseated dictator Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, opposition parties have urged a boycott of the vote, which they say is part of a "coup" against the only democracy to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

The election for the new 161-seat assembly comes after President Saied froze the previous legislature on July 25 last year, following months of political crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

He later dissolved the parliament, which had long been dominated by his nemesis the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha Party. 

Saied on Wednesday defended his decision, saying that the "Tunisian people, wherever I went, were all asking to dissolve the parliament".

"The country was on the brink of civil war," he told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.

The previous legislature had far-reaching powers, in the mixed presidential-parliamentary system enshrined in the North African country’s post-revolution constitution.

Last July, Saied used a widely shunned referendum to push through a new constitution, stripping parliament of any real clout and giving his own office almost unlimited powers.

The legal expert who oversaw its drafting said the version Saied published had been changed in a way that could lead to a “dictatorial regime”. Saied later published a slightly amended draft.

‘Rump parliament’ 

Analyst Hamadi Redissi said the aim of Saturday’s polls was “to complete the process that started on July 25” last year.

The resulting parliament “won’t have many powers, it won’t be able to appoint a government or censure it, except under draconian conditions that are almost impossible to meet”. 

Saied’s new system essentially does away with political parties and electoral lists, meaning candidates will be elected as individuals with no declared affiliation.

The assembly’s final make-up is not expected to be determined until March next year, after any second-round run-offs have been completed.

The vote aims “to increase the legitimacy of the presidency”, Redissi said, adding that the result would be “a rump parliament without any powers”.

Almost all the country’s political parties, including Ennahdha, have said they will boycott the vote, labelling Saied’s moves a “coup”.

The powerful UGTT trade union federation, which did not openly oppose the initial power grab, has called the poll meaningless.

Most of the 1,058 candidates are unknowns.

The Tunisian Observatory for Democratic Transition says some 26 per cent are teachers, and a further 22 are mid-level public servants.

The election result will likely see a drop in the representation of women, with just 122 female candidates.

‘Bad to worse’ 

Few of the country’s nine million registered voters are expected to turn out.

Several young people told AFP they had little interest in the election or desire to know more about the candidates.

Marwa Ben Miled, a 53-year-old shopkeeper, told AFP the country was “going from bad to worse”.

“What happens on the political scene doesn’t interest me anymore,” she said. “I don’t trust anyone.”

Saied’s electoral law forbids candidates from speaking to the foreign press, a stance the North Africa Foreign Correspondents’ Club said would make it difficult for journalists to do their jobs.

Saied has made several public appearances, meeting market traders in the Old City of Tunis in the run-up to the vote.

Some social media users have posted satirical images ridiculing the vote.

In one video, a mock candidate appears with a cigar and smelling a posy of jasmine, before giving a donation to a pair of musicians who then shout pro-Saied slogans.

THE HAGUE — The family of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat submitted a case on Thursday to the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing top Palestinian officials over his death in custody, relatives told AFP.

Banat, a leading critic of the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, died in June 2021 after being dragged from his home in the occupied West Bank by security forces.

A post-mortem found he had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands, with less than an hour elapsing between his arrest and his death.

"Our only hope is in the International Criminal Court," the activist's brother, Ghassan Banat, told AFP outside the tribunal in the Dutch city of The Hague.

"The time has come to achieve justice for the martyr Nizar Banat, after the authority has failed for more than a year and a half to achieve justice."

Any person or group can file a complaint to ICC prosecutor for investigation, but the court is not obliged to take them on.

The move marks the first time a Palestinian will lodge a complaint at the ICC against another Palestinian, according to the family's lawyer.

"We demand justice for a man who was doing nothing but speaking the truth to power," said the family's lawyer Hakan Camuz said outside court.

'No justice' 

The ICC prosecutor's office last year opened a full investigation into the situation in the Palestinian territories, including alleged crimes by Israeli forces and by Hamas and Palestinian armed groups.

The family's case lodged at the ICC accuses seven Palestinian officials of responsibility for Banat's death.

The decision to take the case to The Hague comes after 14 members of the Palestinian security forces were released on bail, pending their military trial in the West Bank over Banat's death.

Ghassan Banat said the men's release earlier this year left him believing "there is no justice enforcement".

"At that time, we understood that the regime of the Palestinian Authority, the police, the security officers, have more authority than the court, that they were above the court," he said.

"That is why we have decided to move on to the international arena."

Banat's death sparked rare protests in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, with demonstrators shouting "Justice for Nizar" and pressing Abbas to quit.

A poll last year by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found 63 per cent of Palestinians believe Banat’s death was “a deliberate measure ordered by the PA political or security leaders”.

The dissident’s brother said he was killed when he “challenged Mahmud Abbas and was telling people the truth about the real situation of the Palestinian Authority”.

Abbas has held office since 2005 and last year cancelled long-delayed elections.

The step by the Banat family follows the Al Jazeera broadcaster taking a case to the ICC last week over its slain reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, arguing she was deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces.

Abu Akleh was killed in May while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 June War.

Israel is not an ICC member and disputes the court’s jurisdiction to probe the situation in the Palestinian territory.

The probe will focus on the actions of all parties in the 2014 Gaza war, as well as other incidents such as the killing by Israeli forces of protesters in the coastal Palestinian territory.

ISTANBUL — Tens of thousands of Turks swarmed a central Istanbul square on Thursday in solidarity with the city's opposition mayor after he was banned from politics ahead of next year's presidential election.

A criminal court on Wednesday sentenced Ekrem Imamoglu to more than two years in prison and barred him from holding office for the same length of time for "insulting a public official" in 2019.

Imamoglu will continue to serve as mayor of Turkey's largest city while his appeal is heard in a case linked to a hugely contested election in which his initial victory was annulled.

The case could be fast-tracked for a quick hearing and destroy any bid by Imamoglu to run in the June presidential campaign.

The US State Department said it was "deeply troubled and disappointed" by the potential removal of one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's biggest rivals from the political scene.

Germany called it "a heavy blow to democracy" while France urged Turkey to "reverse its slide away from the rule of law, democracy and respect for fundamental rights".

"This sentence is disproportionate and confirms the systemic lack of independence of the judiciary and the undue political pressure on judges and prosecutors in Turkey," a European Union said in a statement.

'Absolutely not afraid' 

Turkey's fractured opposition has struggled to unite behind a single candidate to challenge Erdogan's two-decade rule in the upcoming vote.

Polls show the 52-year-old Istanbul mayor as one of the more likely challengers to beat Erdogan in a head-to-head race.

But his secular CHP party's leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu — a bookish former civil servant who struggles in opinion polls — is still pushing hard for his own candidacy.

Meral Aksener of the nationalist Iyi (Good) Party has also seen her electoral ratings shoot up.

The fractured opposition has seized on the court case to try and spur their stuttering campaign.

Imamoglu and the leaders of six Turkish opposition parties walked out shoulder-to-shoulder through a crowd of supporters for a rally aimed at showing their defiance of Erdogan.

"I am absolutely not afraid of their illegitimate verdict," Imamoglu told the flag-waving crowd under constant rain.

"I don't have judges to protect me, but I have 16 million Istanbulites and our nation behind me."

The rally marked the first joint public appearance by the main opposition leaders during the election campaign.

Its size also rivalled the number of people Erdogan generally draws at his own almost weekly campaign events.

Local media reports said a few hundred people showed up to a separate rally in Imamoglu's native Black Sea city of Trabzon.

'Damaged credibility' 

Snap polls show that Wednesday's court ruling threatens to backfire on Erdogan.

The Turkish leader's own ratings have started to recover from a low reached during an economic crisis in the past year.

But a MetroPoll survey showed that even voters for Erdogan's Islamic-rooted AKP party believe that the case against the mayor was "political".

MetroPoll showed 28.3 per cent of AKP voters thought it was rooted in politics while 24.2 per cent believed it was connected to "libel".

Only 17.6 per cent nationally thought is was "libel".

Erdogan himself is yet to address the mayor's conviction.

But the head of the staunchly nationalist junior partner in Erdogan's ruling coalition accused Imamoglu of flouting the law.

"It is one thing to disapprove of a court decision, another to insult it," MHP Party chief Devlet Bahceli said.

"Everyone must respect judicial decisions, even if they are disliked."

One of the main dangers for Erdogan's coalition appears to be a loss of legitimacy for the upcoming vote among ordinary Turks.

"This verdict and the accompanying political ban is a sign of the AKP's deep worry if Imamoglu was to be the opposition's candidate," the EU's former Turkey ambassador Marc Pierini tweeted.

"If the verdict is not overturned at appeal stage, the election's credibility will be badly damaged."

PARIS — A doctor, rap artists and a footballer are among around two dozen Iranians who risk being hanged as Tehran uses capital punishment as an intimidation tactic to quell protests, rights groups say.

The executions in the past week of Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, both 23 and the first people put to death over the protests, sparked an outcry, especially as Rahnavard was hanged from a crane in public rather than in prison.

But campaigners warn that more executions will inevitably follow without tougher international action, with a dozen more people already sentenced to death over the protests and a similar number charged with crimes that could see them hanged.

"Unless the political cost of the executions is increased significantly, we will be facing mass executions," said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.

He accused Iran’s leaders of using executions to “spread fear among people and save the regime from the nationwide protests”.

The largely peaceful protests sparked by the death in September of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women, are posing the biggest challenge to the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.

There have been no reports of a slackening in protest activity in recent days, including after the executions, but the movement has been marked by phases of more and less intense demonstrations.

Authorities describe those facing death sentences as “rioters” who are being judged in full accordance with the country’s sharia law.

But activists express alarm over the use of vaguely worded sharia legal charges against protesters, such as “enmity against God”, “corruption on earth” and “armed rebellion”, all of which are capital crimes in Iran.

 ‘Unfair trial, torture’ 

Amnesty International currently confirms 11 cases of death sentences issued against individuals over the protests, and another nine cases where individuals have been charged with crimes that could see them given the death penalty.

One young protester, Sahand Nourmohammad-Zadeh, was sentenced to death over charges, which he denied, that he did no more than tear down highway railings and set fire to rubbish bins and tyres, Amnesty said.

The group said it was concerned another young man, Mahan Sadrat, 22, could be executed “imminently” after being sentenced to death in a “grossly unfair trial” over accusations of using a knife to attack an individual.

Mohammad Ghobadlou, aged 22, was sentenced to death on charges of running over police officials with a car, killing one and injuring several others, Amnesty said, adding it had “serious concerns” he was subjected to torture and other abuse in jail.

Saman Seydi, a young Kurdish rapper, was sentenced to death on charges of firing a pistol three times into the air during protests, adding it had received information he had also been subjected to torture to extract forced confessions.

Before his arrest, Seydi had posted material on Instagram in support of the protests, while his rap songs had also been critical of the authorities.

Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou, a doctor, and his wife Farzaneh Ghare-Hasanlou were on their way to the funeral of a killed protester when they were “caught up in the chaos” of a fatal assault on a member of the Basij militia, Amnesty said.

Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou was sentenced to death and his wife to 25 years in prison, with the court relying on incriminating statements from his wife which Amnesty said were coerced and later retracted by her in court.

Her husband was tortured in custody and hospitalised with broken ribs, it said.

Those who face the death penalty after being charged with capital crimes include Toomaj Salehi, 32, a prominent rapper who was charged “solely in connection with critical music and social media posts”, Amnesty said, adding that he had been tortured in detention.

The professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani, 26, is in a similar position after being charged over the deaths of three security officials in November in the city of Isfahan, it said.

The world union of professional footballers FIFPRO said it was “shocked and sickened” by the reports he faces death.

 Executed ‘at any moment’ 

Campaigners are seeking to highlight all individuals facing the death penalty in the hope that increased scrutiny on specific cases can help spare lives.

But they warn the executions are often sudden.

Rahnavard was hanged just 23 days after his arrest and shortly after a last meeting with his mother, who was given no inkling her son was about to be put to death.

Activists were also unaware of Shekari’s case until his execution was announced by state media.

Amnesty said Iranian authorities are issuing, upholding and carrying out death sentences in a “speedy manner” and there is a “serious risk” that people whose death sentences have not been made public could be executed “at any moment”.

“The executions of two people connected to the protests in Iran are appalling, and we are extremely worried for the lives of others who have been similarly sentenced to death,” the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights told AFP.

It added that Iran had “ignored” its pleas not to carry out the executions.

KHARTOUM — Hundreds of Sudanese protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to protest a recent deal aimed at ending the crisis caused by last year's military coup, AFP reporters said.

“No to the settlement," protesters chanted, heading toward the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum.

Near-weekly protests have rocked Sudan since army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan led an October 2021 military coup derailing a transition to civilian rule.

Sudan's short-lived transition was installed following the 2019 ouster of president Omar Bashir.

On December 5, military leaders and multiple civilian factions signed the deal as the first component of a planned two-phase political process.

But critics have slammed the deal, which largely fell short on specifics and timelines, as "vague" and "opaque".

“We are against this deal, which doesn’t provide any clarity regarding our demands of justice and accountability,” said Nisreen, a 38-year-old protester in Khartoum.

“We no longer trust the military. We gave them the trust once before and they later launched the coup.”

Others carried banners demanding justice for people killed during anti-coup protests.

At least 122 people have been killed during a crackdown on demonstrations, according to pro-democracy medics.

Last week’s deal was signed by Burhan and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo as well as civilian groups including the Forces for Freedom and Change, which was ousted in last year’s coup.

During the signing ceremony, Burhan vowed that the military would “go back to the barracks”.

Civilian and military signatories to the deal have pledged to hammer out the details of transitional justice, accountability and security reform “within weeks”.

PARIS — Iran on Monday executed a second man in connection with protests that have shaken the regime for months, defying an international outcry over its use of capital punishment against those involved in the movement.

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, had been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for killing two members of the security forces with a knife, and wounding four other people, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency reported.

It said he was hanged in public in the city, rather than inside prison.

He was executed just over three weeks after he was arrested in November, rights groups said.

The hanging also came only four days after Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed on Thursday on charges of wounding a member of the security forces in the first case of the death penalty being used against a protester.

The executions drew a sharp rebuke from Iran’s arch-foe the United States, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying they “underscore how much the Iranian leadership actually fears its own people”.

Iran calls the protests “riots” and says they have been encouraged by its foreign foes.

Mizan published images of Rahnavard’s execution, showing a man with his hands tied behind his back hanging from a rope attached to a crane. The execution took place before dawn and there was no sign that a significant number of people witnessed it.

The director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR), Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said Rahnavard “was sentenced to death based on coerced confessions after a... show trial”.

“The public execution of a young protester, 23 days after his arrest, is another serious crime committed by the Islamic republic’s leaders,” he told AFP.

New EU sanctions 

The protests were sparked by the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish-Iranian arrested by the morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.

The protests represent the biggest challenge to the regime since the shah’s ouster in 1979 and have been met with a crackdown that activists say aims to instil public fear.

EU ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday stepped up sanctions on Iran over the crackdown.

The targets of the new EU sanctions included state broadcaster IRIB, its director and a TV news anchor for airing forced confessions of detainees.

Army commander-in-chief Abdolrahim Mousavi, the deputy interior minister, and regional commanders of the Revolutionary Guard Corps were also hit with asset freezes and visa bans.

Iran sought to preempt the EU move by imposing sanctions of its own against the heads of the UK’s domestic spy agency and military, along with British and German political figures.

US-based dissident Masih Alinejad charged that “Majidreza Rahnavard’s crime was protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini”.

“The regime’s method of dealing with protests is execution,” said Alinejad, adding: “EU, recall your ambassadors.”

The office of the UN rights commissioner said it was “appalled” by the news of Rahnavard’s execution.

Reports ahead of the execution had described Rahnavard as a young fitness fanatic and a successful amateur wrestler.

Rights groups including IHR have said images have shown he was beaten in custody and forced into a purported confession broadcast on state media.

The protest monitor social media channel 1500tasvir said his family had been informed of the execution only after it was carried out.

It published pictures of a last meeting between the condemned man and his mother, saying she had left with no idea he was about to die.

A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he viewed the circumstances surrounding this latest execution as “particularly cruel”, and that he, along with the UN Human Rights Office, would seek to prevent any further executions.

‘Risk of mass execution’ 

Iran’s use of the death penalty is part of a crackdown that IHR says has seen the security forces kill at least 458 people.

According to the UN, at least 14,000 have been arrested.

Iran is already the world’s most prolific user of the death penalty after China, Amnesty International says.

Public executions are however highly unusual in the Islamic republic, and one in July was described by IHR as the first in two years.

Prior to the two executions, Iran’s judiciary said it had issued death sentences to 11 people in connection with the protests, but campaigners say around a dozen others face charges that could see them also receive the death penalty.

Amnesty on Saturday warned that the lives of two more young men sentenced to death — Mahan Sadrat and Sahand Nourmohammadzadeh — were at imminent risk.

Amiry-Moghaddam warned of “a serious risk of mass execution of protesters” and urged a strong international “response that deters the Islamic republic leaders from more executions”.