THE Moroccan government has withdrawn permission for the human rights body Amnesty International to hold its annual conference this August in Rabat, Amnesty said on Thursday. Some 400 delegates from Amnesty were to have spent 10 days in the Moroccan capital, the first time that an Arab country had agreed to host the rights body’s bi-annual meeting. A statement from Amnesty said it had been informed of the Moroccan government’s decision this week but has received no “clear reason” as to why the conference was refused. In the past Amnesty has heavily criticised the human rights record of Moroccan monarch King Hassan II. The Moroccan embassy in London implicitly confirmed the government’s about-turn, but said that the matter had been dealt with directly between Rabat and Amnesty. Moroccan authorities have referred to statements “disrespectful to the Moroccan authorities”.