Moroccan Leftist Dies after Two-Month Hunger Strike

A leftwing student in jail in Fes in central Morocco has died after more than two months on hunger strike, a local NGO said on Thursday.

Mustapha Meziani, 31, died on Wednesday night in a Fes hospital after refusing food for 72 days, Youssef Raissouni, a leader of the independent Moroccan Association of Human Rights, told Agence France Presse.

The student had been arrested during an inquiry into clashes between Marxist and Islamist students at a university campus in the town in April that left one Islamist dead.

Meziani, accused of taking part in "premeditated murder", was admitted to hospital on July 19 and his health worsened on August 4 when he was "placed on life support", according to prisons authority DGAPR.

"The prison's management did everything possible to convince him to stop his hunger strike," the DGAPR said, adding that he had been given permission to carry on his university studies while in prison.

Meziani's family said the body had been taken to Casablanca for an autopsy.

Swords and knives were used in the April 24 confrontation on the campus at Dhar El-Mehraz, the last stronghold of the radical left in Morocco.

Islamist student Abderrahim Hasnaoui, 21, died in the clashes.