14 January 2004
KING PARDONS JAILED JOURNALISTS
Morocco's King Mohammed VI has pardoned seven journalists, including jailed editors Ali Lmrabet and Mohammed al-Herd, report Index on Censorship, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
Lmrabet and al-Herd, who had been detained since July 2003 and staged a 39-day hunger strike in protest, were released from prison on 7 January. They and five other journalists were among 39 dissidents pardoned by the King (Updates "IFEX Communiqué" #12-24: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/51203/).
Lmrabet was sentenced in May 2003 to four years in prison and fined 20,000 Moroccan dirhams (US$2,000) for "insulting the person of the king", "offence against territorial integrity" and "offences against the monarchy." That came after his weekly publications "Demain" and "Douman" ran stories that tackled two of the most politically sensitive issues in Morocco: the monarchy and the country's sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, CPJ says.
CPJ and RSF have campaigned actively for the release of Lmrabet and the other journalists. Last December, RSF staged a protest at a French ski resort where the King was spending a holiday (see http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8856).
Visit the IFEX website for updates on the situation in Morocco: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/1448/
Other links:
- Index on Censorship: http://www.indexonline.org/news/20031216_morocco.shtml
- Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/deliver/document/15073
(Image Courtesy of RSF)
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