Moroccan journalist Soulaimane Raissouni was sentenced on Friday evening to 5 years in prison by the Casablanca court.
He was being prosecuted in a case of indecent assault with violence and forcible confinement, accusations he has always denied. Its support committee denounces a political trial targeting the comments of the journalist, who is critical of the regime. In protest, he went on a hunger strike which has now lasted 95 days.
Before the verdict on Friday evening, the editor of the daily Akhbar Al Youm had been in prison for more than a year. Arrested on May 22, 2020, following a complaint about indecent assault and kidnapping by an LGBT activist, Soulaimane Raissouni and his supporters have continued to demand his provisional release, without success.
The journalist has been on hunger strike for more than three months to protest against his conditions of detention. His lawyers regularly sound the alarm bells about his state of health.
Consternation
Kdadija Riadhi, former president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights denounces the journalist’s conviction. The human rights defender says she is “appalled” by “a catastrophic trial”, a travesty of justice, according to her.
“We are appalled. We denounce this judgment. It is a judgment that follows a trial where all of Soulaimane’s rights were violated from the start: the presumption of innocence, the fact that he was illegally imprisoned, the fact that he did even not allowed to attend his trial, the fact that his defense was not called to attend the hearing where he was tried, the fact that he was the victim of a smear campaign and insults from the head of prisons in Morocco, the fact that he went on a hunger strike in very difficult conditions where his health is at risk, where his very life is now threatened. “
” So it is a journalist who has been targeted, targeted by methodical, systemic repression by the Moroccan authorities because he is a free journalist who has always been – as an Arabic-speaking columnist – the most read, the most critic in Morocco. “
Coming out of court, Soulaimane Raissouni’s wife, Hajar – also a journalist – promised to continue the legal fight so that ” Soulaimane remains alive “.
Many NGOs, including Reporters Without Borders, support Soulaimane Raissouni, arguing that the accusations against him were only a pretext to hamper his writing, often critical of the Moroccan royalist regime. His conviction does not bode well for the other journalists currently prosecuted in Morocco, in particular Omar Radi, also on hunger strike.
