Moroccan journalist Taoufik Bouachrine, imprisoned since 2018, is struggling “ill-treatment” from the jail administration, his household stated on Thursday, who’re apprehensive concerning the deterioration of his state of well being and name for “pressing intervention “.
Mr. Bouachrine, 54, founder and columnist of the every day Akhbar Al Yaoum, suffers from diabetes and is the goal of “persecutions” and “ill-treatment inflicted by the jail institution on him”, his spouse Asmae Moussaoui stated in a message addressed to AFP.
Attributable to problems associated to his diabetes, he “has been affected by horrible ache in his shoulder for 3 years (…) and the jail physician suggested him to proceed remedy in a hospital exterior the jail. jail,” she explains.
The penitentiary institution accepted that he proceed this remedy exterior the jail “however given that he be handcuffed and put on the uniform of the criminals, which was refused by the journalist, seeing it as an assault on his dignity and his humanity”, explains Ms. Moussaoui.
In one other press launch revealed on her Fb web page, the journalist’s spouse calls “to intervene urgently by all doable means to assist him”.
Requested by AFP, the jail administration (DGAPR) didn’t react instantly, however in a “clarification” revealed final weekend, it had assured that “the TB prisoner (…) advantages from the care vital well being care each inside the penitentiary institution and in exterior hospitals”.
Taoufik Bouachrine was sentenced to fifteen years in jail for “rape”, “trafficking in human beings” and “sexual assault” in opposition to a number of girls. He denied these accusations.
Confronted with criticism, the Moroccan authorities reply that Mr. Bouachrine was tried within the context of a typical regulation case that has no connection along with his freedom of expression, highlighting “the independence of justice”.
The NGO Amnesty Worldwide just lately accused the jail administration of “depriving the correct to learn and write” of imprisoned human rights defenders and journalists, together with Mr. Bouachrine, Omar Radi, and Soulaimane Raissouni. Fees denied by the jail administration.
Within the newest world press freedom rating revealed by Reporters With out Borders (RSF) for the yr 2023, Morocco slipped to 144th place (-9).
A current European Parliament decision expressing concern concerning the deterioration of press freedom in Morocco has sparked the wrath of the Moroccan political class and media.
Moroccan justice additionally rejected Thursday the attraction in cassation of the opponent Mohamed Ziane, former Minister of Human Rights, in line with his lawyer.
A well-known lawyer, having notably defended Taoufik Bouachrine, Mr. Ziane was arrested and imprisoned on November 21 after being sentenced on attraction to 3 years in jail.
Aged 80, he was prosecuted, beneath a grievance from the Ministry of the Inside, for 11 counts, together with “contempt of public officers and justice”, “insult in opposition to a constituted physique”, “defamation”, “adultery” and even “sexual harassment”.
The previous president of Rabat, who has not spared his criticism of energy lately, claims to have been tried “due to his opinions”.
In a report revealed in July 2022, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced in Morocco using trials for extraordinary crimes, specifically sexual crimes, as “methods of repression” geared toward silencing journalists and opponents.
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