RABAT (AFP) – Leading Moroccan rights activist Abraham Serfaty died Thursday aged 84 after a lifelong campaign for democracy, first against the French colonial rulers and then King Hassan II's absolute monarchy.

Serfaty died in a clinic in the southern city of Marrakech, his wife Christine-Daure Serfaty said.

"Serfaty was an activist who dedicated his life first to the anti-colonial struggle and then against the anti-democratic regime of King Hassan II," Moroccan Human Rights Association vice president Amine Abdelhamid told AFP.

A long-time member of the communist party, Serfaty was first jailed by the Moroccan regime in 1972, when he accused the authorities of torturing him.

In 1977 he was sentenced to life in prison for plotting against state security but he was freed in 1991 after an international campaign.

He was immediately expelled to France where he became well known in political circles before he was allowed to return to Morocco in 2000.

Serfaty is due to be buried on Friday in the Jewish cemetery in Casablanca, next to the graves of his parents.