Morocco pardons journalists jailed in crackdown on dissent

Morocco’s king has pardoned three journalists who were imprisoned for years on “trumped up” sex charges after they criticised the country’s regime.
The pardons were announced as the country prepares to celebrate a national holiday marking the 25th anniversary of Mohammed VI’s accession to the throne.
The journalists Omar Radi, Soulaimane Raissouni and Taoufik Bouachrine, as well as the historian and rights advocate Maati Monjib, were among 2,476 people pardoned, government officials said.
The imprisoned journalists became symbols of Morocco’s crackdown against dissent towards the authorities, including businesses and officials with close ties to the royal family.
As well as being a popular tourist destination, Morocco is regarded by the West as a stable bulwark against extremism and a reliable partner in combating terrorism, but the journalists’ imprisonment drew criticism from the US and the European parliament.
The Moroccan constitution gives the monarch the right to pardon or commute sentences, a decision usually taken on national days. The journalists were freed from prison in Tiflet, a town east of Rabat, the capital, and were greeted by family members and supporters.
The three were outspoken critics of corruption and abuse of power and were convicted between 2018 and 2021 on charges including sexual assault, which they denied. The allegations received high-profile coverage in media outlets close to the Moroccan authorities.
Human rights activists had denounced their trials as politically motivated. “Moroccan authorities have developed and refined an array of tactics to silence dissent,” Human Rights Watch wrote in a 2022 report on 12 court cases against political critics in the kingdom. “In the late 2010s, authorities started to prosecute critics for serious crimes such as money laundering, espionage, rape or sexual assault, and even human trafficking.”
Bouachrine, a columnist and editor at a critical independent newspaper, Akhbar el-Yom, was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2018 after being found guilty of human trafficking, sexual assault and rape. Radi, an investigative reporter and activist, and Raissouni, also a former editor of Akhbar el-Yom, were sentenced in 2021 to six years and five years respectively.
Others pardoned included the YouTuber Mohamed Reda Taoujni and the activists Youssef El Hirech and Saida El Alami. “Congratulations. Awaiting the others — and democracy,” the human rights activist Fouad Abdelmoumni wrote on Facebook, referring to a number of dissidents who remain behind bars in Morocco.
The king also pardoned 16 people convicted of extremism and terrorism. The leaders of protests in the northern Rif region in late 2016 and early 2017, however, remain in prison, as does Mohamed Ziane, 81, a former minister who highlighted the king’s prolonged absences from the country and called for his abdication. He is serving sentences that amount to eight years in prison for offences that include sexual charges.