Journalist Soulaimane Raissouni has been in prison in Morocco since May 2020. Convicted at first instance and then on appeal of sexual assault following a complaint by an LGBT activist, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Invited on March 23 in Brussels, at the European Parliament, his wife Khouloud Mokhtari raised the issue of freedom of expression in Morocco. She also confided in RFI.
Soon three years that Soulaimane Raissouni is imprisoned. The journalist and his support committee have always denounced political trials and the authorities’ desire to silence critics of the regime, while the authorities, on the contrary, consider that the editorialist benefited from “a fair trial”.
While the lawyers await the application of their cassation appeal, Khouloud Mokhtari, the wife of Soulaimane Raissouni, continues to fight. She intends to use all means to prove her husband’s innocence. After her speech to the European Parliament during a round table on freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Morocco, she speaks at the microphone of Guillaume Thibault:
“I really want to talk about my husband’s case. He is still in an individual cell since his “kidnapping” on May 20, 2020. Soulaimane does not come out of his cell. From the start, the trial was unfair. Morocco is supposed to respect the charter of the European Union on the respect of human rights. I am here to continue my fight. They go after him every time. My duty is to denounce everything that has been done against my husband.”
