Marrakesh - Many public holidays in the north African kingdom of Morocco are marked with royal pardons, but this weeks's announcement that King Mohammed VI had granted amnesties to 56 prisoners was unlike others, writes Jane Walker.
These lucky recipients were political prisoners, rather than the criminal element who usually benefit from this royal prerogative.
The amnesty celebrated King Mohammed's first visit of his reign to the disputed territory of Western Sahara, the former Spanish Sahara, which was seized by Hassan II. Since then, the Western Sahauri people, led by the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, have struggled for independence over their mineral rich desert region. Nearly all the men due to be released this week were serving sentences of between two and ten years for their part in this struggle, and one of them, Mr Sidi Mohammed Dadacha, had been sentenced to life imprisonment for violent incidents between protesters and Moroccan forces in El Aiun in 1999.