activists were soon arrested and by 2013, the focus had become the release of detainees.

Last May, the jailing of the Hirak leaders dealt a first blow to the movement, which had been going on since October but remained contained to the Rif region. Nasser Zefzafi, presented as its main leader, is still detained and under trial while Sylia Ziani, a singer, arrested in June and held at the Oukacha prison in Casablanca for almost two months, was granted a royal pardon with about 40 other protesters. On November 30th, Mortada Iamrachen, a well-known Hirak activist and a Salafist known for his openness, has been sentenced to five years of jail time, officially for inciting terrorism in a Facebook post.

Their arrests quickly resonated throughout the country, prompting demonstrations, attimes repressed, in major cities like Rabat, Khouribga, Casablanca, Fès, Meknès, Agadir, Marrakech. On June 11 of this year, 50,000 people, including members of the Islamist organization Al Adl Wal Ihsane as well as leftists and human rights activists, gathered in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, with the family members of the Hirak prisoners. This was the biggest protest since 2011.

Although the issue of the Hirak’s prisoners remains unsolved, and dozens have been sentenced to jail sentences, the situation has more or less gone back to normal in the streets of El Hoceima. And while protesters and activists still take to the streets in solidarity sit-ins in other cities, their outreach is mainly symbolic. However, demonstrators manage to gather in the city of Imzouren, next to El Hoceima, once a