Morocco slams US human rights report as a list of lies

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Morocco slammed the U.S. State Department's report on human rights in the North African kingdom as a list of inventions and even lies.

Among other things, the lengthy State Department report said that "systematic and pervasive corruption undermined law enforcement and the effectiveness of the judicial system," adding that "impunity was pervasive" with no official data about prosecution or punishment of officials committing abuses.

While reports of disappearances and torture, widespread in the 1970s and 1980s, have eased, the State Department report noted a 2014 report by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention citing "sources deemed to be credible" saying that disappearances have continued.

While torture is constitutionally forbidden, the State Department report quoted an Amnesty International review claiming that "an array of torture techniques are used by Moroccan security forces to extract confessions ... silence activists and crush dissent."