Death of Mouhcine Fikri


Mouhcine Fikri was a Moroccan fish vendor from Al Hoceima. On October 28, 2016, a policeman confiscated 500kg of swordfish that he had purchased from Al Hoceima port. When Fikri climbed into the back of a rubbish truck to protest the confiscation, the rubbish crusher mechanism was activated, crushing him to death. Video footage of his death was widely played on social media in Morocco. Outrage led to protests in Al Hoceima, that spread across Morocco. Fikri's death drew parallels with the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit seller whose death in 2010 sparked protests in Tunisia leading both to revolution there and to the wider Arab Spring.