RABAT, Morocco (AFP) — Forty-five Moroccan teachers have been handed suspended prison sentences for attending unauthorised protests last year over a long-running contract dispute with the education ministry, their lawyer said Friday.

The charges related to protests and strikes that have rocked the North African country’s state schools since 2019.

Three years earlier, Morocco had started hiring tens of thousands of young teachers on limited-term contracts, but in early 2019 they took industrial action to demand better conditions, particularly over pension rights.

They were given permanent regional contracts, but the protests continued as they demanded the status of full education ministry employees.

Lawyer Souad Brahma, who is defending all 45 teachers, said she would appeal against the sentences handed down by a Rabat court on Thursday.

Brahma said the court had sentenced one teacher, Nezha Magdi, to three months in prison for “insulting a state body” after she accused security forces of sexually harassing demonstrators during a protest last March.

Magdi and the other 44 teachers were also prosecuted for “unauthorised gatherings” and violating novel coronavirus restrictions, the head of the teachers union, Abderrazzak Drissi, said.

Drissi urged authorities to “put an end to the cycle of arrests and trials in order to find a definitive solution for this issue”.

A further 25 people are still facing similar charges, he said.

Some teachers have been on strike since late February in protest at the “injust and fabricated” charges against their colleagues.

A national federation for parents of pupils issued a statement condemning “incomprehensible, repeated strikes”, while the education ministry said it was committed to finding a solution through talks.