Call for immediate release of editor who has completed a one-year jail term

Reporters Without Borders today called for the “immediate release” of Anas Tadili, the editor of the weekly Akhbar al-Ousbouaâ, who should have been let out of jail on 29 September on completion of a one-year sentence for libelling a government minister. “We do not understand this unrelenting attitude towards Tadili on the part of the judicial authorities,” the press freedom organisation said. Judicial and prison officials have turned a deaf ear to all the pleas from Tadili's family and lawyers. Detained since 15 April 2004, Tadili is being held in especially harsh conditions. He is in a “high security” wing of Kénitra prison. He is banned from communicating with other inmates and using recreation areas. He has diabetes, high cholesterol, rheumatism and heart problems. And he is being treated for depression. A Rabat court sentenced him on appeal on 19 September 2004 to a year in prison and a fine of 10,000 dirhams (900 euros) for reporting on 9 April of that year that the police had caught a government minister in a homosexual act at a beach resort in northern Morocco. The report did not name the minister but his identity was clear from the context. Six days after the report was published, Tadili was jailed in connection with a 10-year-old case that was unrelated to his work as a journalist. A court ordered his imprisonment for debt on the grounds that he was unable to immediately pay a fine of 3 million dirhams (270,000 euros). The order was only lifted seven months later. Tadili wrote to Reporters Without Borders on 20 September of this year to complain about his continuing detention. Extracts of his letter follow: Tadili Anas
Prisoner of conscience
Kénitra central prison
Dear colleague, I am sending this letter to you via my family to protest against the actions of the judicial and prisons authorities against me. I have suffered too much in this sordid place, too much for myself and for all my colleagues in this noble nation of ours who act as educators and safeguards against the government. It matters little to me whether I have been convicted fairly or unfairly, but I am appalled to be forced to remain in prison although the Rabat appeal court issued a ruling in my favour against the order of imprisonment for debt. As I was for a long time a senior official in the justice ministry, I know what I am talking about. (...) Would you be so kind as to add a few lines of comment to this protest, in order to show that we are united in a common struggle? Especially as your space is widely read by most of you know who. At my trial, I had several well-placed enemies, both civilian and military, and that did not make it easy for me to pull through, as I'm sure you will understand. But if that was bad enough, it is the absolute limit that they are now refusing to apply a Rabat appeal court ruling in my favour issued in His Majesty's name against a lower court decision. You may tell me that nothing in our country surprises you, but this is really something else. Fraternally, Anas Tadili
Editor of Akhbar Al Ousboue