Morocco: Hajar Raissouni Finally Free!

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomes the release of Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni imprisoned for “illegal abortion” and “sex outside marriage” for over a month.

In a statement of 16 October 2019, the Moroccan Ministry of Justice announced that King Mohammed VI grieved journalist Hajar Raissouni , sentenced to one year in prison on 30 September for “illegal abortion” and “sex outside marriage” . 

Arrested on August 30 and kept in detention since then, the journalist has repeatedly denounced “fabricated accusations” and a “political affair”, particularly related to his articles on the detainees of the social movement of “Hirak”.

” We are relieved to hear the release of Hajar Raissouni,” said Souhaieb Khayati, director of RSF’s North Africa office. We hope that in future no Moroccan journalist will see his private life instrumentalised for political purposes “.

Hajar Raissouni has been the subject of a fierce campaign of defamation concerning his private life by well-known media near Makhzen.

As a reminder, the editorialist and press owner Taoufik Bouachrine , arrested in February 2018 and sentenced in November 2018 to twelve years in prison for “trafficking in human beings”, “abuse of power for sexual purposes”, “rape and Attempted rape “, for its part, risks having its sentence increased to twenty years in prison, with a fine of one million dirhams (about € 100,000).

Morocco ranks 135th in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index in 2019 .U

Copyright ©2016, Reporters Without Borders. Used with the permission of Reporters Without Borders, CS 90247 75083 Paris Cedex 02 https://rsf.org

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