Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asked King Mohammed VI on Friday for the pardon of three imprisoned Moroccan journalists, Omar Radi, Soulaimane Raissouni and Taoufik Bouachrine, convicted of sexual assaults of which they claim to be innocent.
“Before the Throne Day on July 30, I sent a letter to King Mohammed VI asking for a pardon for the journalists Taoufik Bouachrine, Omar Radi and Soulaimane Raissouni, abusively detained in Morocco”, writes the secretary general of RSF, Christophe Deloire, on his Twitter account (renamed X).
“The legal remedies are exhausted. These incarcerations damage the image of the country”, estimates Mr. Deloire, with the approach of the national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the accession of Mohammed VI to the throne on July 30, 1999.
It is a tradition in Morocco that the Cherifian sovereign pardons dozens of prisoners sentenced by the courts during national and religious holidays.
On July 18, the Court of Cassation of Morocco, the highest judicial body in the kingdom, rejected the appeal of MM. Radi (37) and Raissouni (51), confirming their sentences of six and five years in prison respectively in cases of sexual assault (and espionage for the first).
The appeal of Mr. Bouachrine, 54, founder and columnist of an Arabic-language daily, has already been rejected in 2021.
Incarcerated since 2018, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “rape”, “trafficking in human beings” and “sexual assault” against several women.
The three journalists deny the charges outright and say they were punished for their opinions.
But for the Moroccan authorities, they were tried for common law crimes which “have nothing to do” with their profession or respect for freedom of expression.
In a press release published on Friday, RSF draws up “a disturbing new state of play of press freedom in Morocco”.
“The sum of attacks on the freedom of journalists and the press is a sad indicator which confirms, alas, the authoritarian stiffening in Morocco”, deplores Khaled Drareni, its representative in North Africa.
In the latest world ranking of press freedom published by Reporters Without Borders, Morocco slipped to 144th place (-9), behind Algeria (136th) and Tunisia (121st).
