Rabat, Morocco- Moroccan journalist Hicham Mansouri, a member of the Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalists (AMJI), was sentenced this week to 10 months in jail by the court of first instance in Rabat for “adultery with a married woman” and “starting a brothel” charges, including a $4,000 fine.
Mansouri, 34, was arrested last March 17 by a dozen police officers in Rabat after bursting into his apartment while he was with what was referred to in local reports as “his girlfriend, a woman separated from her husband, but not yet officially divorced.”
The founder of AMJI, Maati Monjib, and member of Freedom Now, an NGO that aims at defending the freedom of expression in Morocco, said that the verdict was meant to intimidate Hicham, stressing that “the regime is finding new ways to attack its opponents.”
Monjib said that “there is no doubt that it is the association itself that is in the viewfinder of the authorities. This association was founded in February 2011 in the wake of the ‘Arab Spring’, and since its inception, it has encountered various problems when organizing its activities.”
Monjib said that Mansouri was investigating electronic surveillance in Morocco, an investigation that apparently upset some elements among the authorities.
The International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) considers Hicham Mansouri as “a political prisoner.”
In Morocco, adultery is condemned to a sentence ranging from one month to one year in prison “for any person who maintains extramarital relations,” as stipulates articles 490 and 491 of the Moroccan Criminal Code.
The Moroccan Times.
