Dismay over court's decision to keep newspaper editor

Reporters Without Borders today voiced its outrage at an appeal court's decision yesterday to keep detained newspaper editor Ali Lmrabet in prison. Lmrabet, who has been on hunger strike since 6 May and has been hospitalised since 26 May, came to the court in a wheelchair for the hearing, which was the first in his appeal case. The next hearing has been set for 10 June. Lmrabet was jailed on 21 May. "One would have hoped the Moroccan justice system would calm things down and show clemency by ordering Lmrabet's provisional release," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said. "Instead, its obstinacy seems to be confirming the fears of those who say that Lmrabet's imprisonment has sounded the death knell for the independent press." Ménard added: "People thought King Mohammed's Morocco was on the road to democracy, but they were clearly wrong." Lmrabet is the owner and editor of two satirical weeklies, the French-language Demain Magazine and its Arabic-language version Douman. He is also Reporters Without Borders' correspondent in Morocco. On 21 May, a court in Rabat sentenced him to four years in prison on 21 May for "insulting the person of the king", "offence against territorial integrity" and "offence against the monarchy." The court also fined him 20,000 dirhams (about 2,000 euros) and banned his two weeklies. He was taken from the courtroom to a prison cell. He was convicted on the basis of articles and cartoons about the annual allowance that parliament grants the royal family (detailed in a finance ministry document distributed to parliamentarians), a cartoon strip on the history of slavery, a photomontage of Moroccan political personalities, and an interview with a Moroccan republican who advocated self-determination for Western Sahara. When he began his hunger strike on 6 May, Lmrabet said he was acting to defend his rights, to put an end to repeated acts of intimidation against his printer and others who would otherwise be ready to print his weeklies, and in order to be able to enjoy the right to freedom of movement. On 26 May, at the end of his third week on hunger strike, he was rushed from prison to Avicenne hospital in Rabat.