Mohamed al-Kattani was arrested on 13 February 2003, and was sentenced following the Casablanca bombings in May 2003 to 20 years in prison on charges of belonging to a salafist jihadi group, despite the absence of any evidence linking him to these attacks.

Given the grave breaches of his human rights, Alkarama lodged a complaint with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, explaining the arbitrary nature of the legal proceedings carried out by the Moroccan authorities against Sheikh Kattani.

In reaction to the news, Rashid Mesli, director of Alkarama's Legal Department, said that "the release of Sheikh Kattani is a good indicator that the Moroccan authorities are reacting to the decisions of the UN human rights bodies, in this case the one issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which called for his release and for him to be compensated ".