Moroccan journalist Ameen Ayoub reported being detained and mistreated upon arriving in Cuba due to his support for Israel and his frequent visits to Tel Aviv.
Ayoub explained that he intended to visit his brother in Houston, USA, and they had arranged to meet in the Bahamas. However, this seemingly straightforward trip turned into a harsh and troubling experience because of his political views.
“When the plane landed, they treated me like a terrorist,” he stated to Israeli media, noting that he was held for four to five hours at arrival, undergoing intense questioning due to multiple Israeli visas in his passport. Officials asked whether he had lived in Israel and inquired about his relationships there.
“They detained me as if I were a criminal,” he said. The treatment was frightening and meticulously planned. Ayoub explained, “They did it cunningly. They said, ‘Let’s see your bookings,’ took my phone, and held it for two hours. I don’t know what they did with it. I might need to change my phone because I do a lot of my work on it.”
### Travel Ban
After spending three days in Cuba as planned, Ayoub arrived at the airport with his ticket to the Bahamas. Suddenly, a plainclothes official took his passport and told him, “No, you cannot go to the Bahamas.” When he asked for clarification, he received no clear explanation and was treated like a criminal again. Cuban authorities claimed that “the Bahamians don’t want you,” even though his visa for the Bahamas was still valid. There were no official documents or procedures; he was ordered to return to Morocco immediately.
He was then placed in a holding room with metal chairs for over 30 hours. “No food, no water,” Ayoub recalled. “If I needed to go to the bathroom, a guard would follow me – or I don’t even know if they were police. Those 32 hours were a crazy experience.”
### Reason: Support for Israel
For Ayoub, the reason is clear: his public support for Israel. “This explains everything, with all the questions they asked and the way they treated me,” he said. He noted that the Cubans were careful not to leave any paper trail – no forms, no documentation of his detention. “They have techniques to leave no evidence of what they did to me.”
His ordeal concluded when he was escorted to the plane by the head of security at Havana airport, surrounded by several officers who stayed with him until he was seated. “I still suffer from physical pain from sleeping in that place for 32 hours,” he stated. “There are also psychological effects. I’m still disturbed because I don’t know what those men wanted. They could have harmed me.”
“It’s a dangerous time to travel. I may be banned from entering many countries, including Turkey. Imagine if I had been sent to Turkey instead of France – imagine what would have happened to me. I write a lot about Islamism in Turkey. It’s a perilous time, but we must do it. We must speak the truth and confront evil.”
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