Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Morocco jails scribe for insulting king
Agence France-Presse Rabat, May 21
A Moroccan journalist was jailed for four years on Wednesday for insulting King Mohammed VI and undermining the country's national integrity, sparking protests that the sentence was too harsh and politically biased.
But journalist, Ali Lamrabet, editor-in-chief of satirical magazines Demain and Doumane, said he was not surprised by his weighty sentence as police prepared to escort him from the court in Rabat to prison in the nearby town of Sale.
"This verdict doesn't surprise me," said Lamrabet, who was also fined 20,000 dirhams (1,900 euros/2,100 dollars) and saw his two magazines banned from publishing.
"The interior ministry and the DST (Moroccan intelligence) focussed on my caricatures and drawings instead of looking after the security of the country," said Lamrabet, alluding to the series of blasts that rocked the city of Casablanca on Friday, claiming 41 lives.
Lamrabet's controversial sentence came as Morocco tries to position itself as a burgeoning democracy, where freedom of expression is encouraged. The attacks in Casablanca last week have sparked fears that democratic rights and freedoms will from now on be limited in Morocco.
Charges were brought against Lamrabet after his magazines published articles on topics including a parliamentary vote on the king's civil list, the budget of the royal palace, and a cartoon on the history of slavery in Morocco. Another article quoted a Moroccan republican activist.
"Prison doesn't scare me," Lamrabet said, clutching a small bag containing some personal effects, which he had brought to court, convinced he would be jailed.
The prosecution last week recommended Lamrabet be given the maximum sentence for defaming the king, or five years in prison.
A section of Morocco's penal code allows immediate imprisonment on conviction by a court.
"I knew from the start of the trial that they wanted to jail me and that the sentence would be heavy," he told dozens of reporters and lawyers at the court, all angered by the severity of the sentence.
Lamrabet's lawyers said they would appeal the sentence, which they called "a serious regression for freedom of the press in Morocco."
They said it was the first time since 1971 that a journalist had been jailed on similar charges in the north African kingdom.
Ahmed Benjelloun, one of Lamrabet's lawyers, called the trial "unfair, scandalous" and "a parody of justice."
"We will appeal, but we have no illusions, the judiciary in our country being what it is," he said. "With this sentence, the margins of freedom of the press have been pulled back further," he lamented.
Robert Menard, secretary general of media rights watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF - Reporters without Borders) -- which Lamrabet represents in Morocco -- said in a statement he was "appalled and horrified by this verdict." "The trial we just witnessed was no more or less than a political trial," Menard said.
"Is Ali Lamrabet a criminal that one throws immediately into prison?" Menard asked, and called on the king, often hailed as a moderniser, to prove "with strong gestures his belief in true freedom of the press, without taboos or forbidden territory."
The Moroccan parliament in May last year approved a new press code, which reduced the maximum prison term for defaming the royal family from 20 years to five.
But the code, which replaced existing regulations governing the media, did not do away with prison terms for defamation as demanded by the National Union of the Moroccan Press (SNPM).
"The worst thing is that they have jailed Ali Lamrabet instead of waiting for him to lodge an appeal. This sentence smacks of vengeance," Younes Moujahid, secretary general of the SNPM told AFP Wednesday. Lamrabet said he intends to continue a hunger strike he began two weeks ago "to denounce this unfair trial and obtain permission to publish the two weeklies."
Communication Minister Nabil Benabdallah refused to comment on the sentence, saying it was "a judicial decision" and doing so would undermine the sovereignty of the judiciary.
A difference has to be drawn, said Benabdallah, between a decision taken by the courts and repressive measures taken by the authorities.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2002. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission