A court in the Moroccan city of Casablanca on Thursday sentenced 11 pro-reform activists to jail terms of up to one year for violence against police during an unauthorized protest in April.

Five of those convicted from the "February 20" movement were handed one-year terms, four others were jailed for six months and the other two received two-month suspended sentences.

Amnesty International urged Morocco Tuesday to drop the charges against a journalist accused of aiding "terrorism," as the latest hearing in a controversial case was adjourned for a fifth time.

"The Moroccan authorities must end their charade of a trial against Ali Anouzla and drop all terrorism charges against him," the rights group's regional director Philip Luther said.

Morocco has arrested four Europeans of Moroccan origin wanted in Belgium and the Netherlands in connection with armed attacks, attempted murders and jewelry thefts, state media reported.

The men were arrested by security forces acting on international arrest warrants issued by Brussels and The Hague, the state news agency MAP said on Saturday, quoting the interior ministry.

Hundreds of hardline Salafists demonstrated outside Morocco's parliament Friday demanding the release of fellow Islamists jailed in connection with suicide bombings in Casablanca 11 years ago, insisting on their innocence.

The protesters held pictures of relatives and friends jailed in the aftermath of the attacks, on May 16, 2011, which killed 33 people and led to the adoption of tough anti-terrorist legislation and a crackdown on Islamists.

A Moroccan court has jailed six men for up to three years on various charges including "homosexuality", a rights group told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

Despite its liberal reputation compared with other parts of the Arab world, Morocco remains a conservative Muslim country whose government is led by a moderate Islamist party and where gay sex is illegal, punishable by a maximum three years in prison.

Amnesty International on Tuesday said perpetrators of torture enjoy almost "total impunity" in Morocco and Western Sahara, calling for an end to the practice, while acknowledging that it had become less frequent.

The allegations are part of a global anti-torture campaign launched by the London-based rights group.

Canada's Kim Bolduc was on Monday named as the head of the United Nations mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), a statement from secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's office said.

Bolduc, 62, will also serve as Ban's special representative for Western Sahara, replacing Germany's Wolfgang Weisbrod-Weber who steps down on July 31.

Moroccan police violently dispersed two pro-independence demonstrations in Western Sahara over a period of 48 hours as a U.N. human rights delegation visited the region, rights groups said Friday.

They said around 15 people were wounded, but that could not be confirmed by official sources.

More than a hundred people stormed the fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Thursday, officials said, in the latest attempt by migrants to breach the border.

The early-morning surge of 500 people "ended with 140 immigrants of sub-Saharan origin entering national territory," according to a statement from Spanish officials in the city. 

An Islamist student died and at least two more were wounded in clashes with leftist students at the University of Fez in Morocco, officials and other sources said Friday.

Thursday's clashes began after leftists tried to forcibly prevent the Islamists from holding a round-table discussion on "Islamists, the left and democracy", a journalist in Fez told Agence France Presse by telephone.