Journalists and activists, including Omar Radi and Souleymane Raisoni, were released following a state pardon.

Over the years, the human rights organization Amnesty International has called for the release of Moroccan journalists Omar Radi, Solaimane Raisoni and Toufic Bouqrain, and intellectual Maadi Monjib. On Monday July 29, all four were pardoned by King Mohammed VI.

A Moroccan official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that they were among 2,476 pardoned by the Justice Ministry during Tuesday’s Throne Day celebrations to mark the sovereign’s ascension to the throne twenty-five years ago.

After being released from prison, arrested journalist Omar Radi said in 2020 “with gratitude”. “I am grateful to know that prisoners have been acquitted in such cases.”Tifflet, who is close to the detention center about sixty kilometers east of the capital Rabat, told AFP he believes the decision is possible.“Sanctifying Moroccan Public Space”..

Freedom of the press: 129 in Morocco^e Ranked out of 180 according to RSF

Known for their criticism of the authorities, Omar Radi, Souleymane Raisoni and Tawfiq Bouqrain rejected the sexual assault charges against them, believing it was a way to punish them for their views.

For the Moroccan authorities, they were tried for common law offences “nothing to do” They do not respect their profession or freedom of expression, but the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses these officials of using “Common Law Criminal Charges Against Opponents and Prominent Media Professionals”.

In the latest world ranking for press freedom published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Morocco is ranked 129th.^e Place, in 180.

Omar Radi and Soulaimane Raissouni were arrested in 2020 and Taoufik Bouachrine was arrested in 2018. In July 2023, Morocco’s Court of Cassation, the kingdom’s highest judicial body, rejected MM’s appeal. Radi (age 38) and Raisoni (age 52) were sentenced to six years and five years in prison respectively in the sexual assault cases, with the former being charged with espionage.

The 55-year-old founder and editor of the Arabic-language daily Mr. Bougrain’s appeal was dismissed in 2021. Jailed since 2018, she was convicted of “rape”, “human trafficking” and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. “Sexual assaults” against many women.

Prisoners convicted in terrorism cases were also pardoned

For his part, Franco-Moroccan historian and human rights defender Matti Monjib, 62, was sentenced to a year in prison in early 2021 in the first instance for “fraud” and “endangering state security” at the end of a trial opened in 2015. .

The intellectual has been on trial for “money laundering” since 2019, which saw him detained for three months before being granted a provisional release in March 2021 at the end of a twenty-day hunger strike. He has been accused of malfeasance in the management of a center he created specifically to promote investigative journalism, which he denies.

Local media reported that other journalists or activists, such as Imad Stido, Hicham Mansouri and Saida El Alami, were pardoned on Monday.

The royal pardon also involved sixteen “Prisoners Convicted in Extremism and Terrorism Cases” containing “Revised their ideological orientations”The Justice Ministry said in a statement, without identifying them.