A journalist charged with "damaging the monarchic regime"

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the use of a journalist as a "scapegoat" in a political row after Abdelaziz Koukas, managing editor of the Arabic-language weekly Al Ousbouia Al Jadida, was charged with "damaging the monarchic regime". Koukas will go on trial on 28 June 2005 and faces a heavy sentence. The weekly published an interview on 2 June with Nadia Yassine the unofficial spokesperson of the Al Adl Wal Ihssane (Justice and Charity) party in which she said the monarchy did not suit Morocco and that the regime was on the point of collapse. The following day, Koukas and the journalists who carried out the interview, were summoned to the general directorate for national security in Rabat to be questioned about the reasons for the interview. The authorities criticised the journalists for not countering what Yassine had said and accused them of producing propaganda for her party. "We condemn the use of this journalist as a scapegoat in a case pitting the authorities against the spokesperson of a political party" said Reporters Without Borders. "The authorities are trying to intimidate and discipline the media so that they only quote politicians approved by the state." "We call for charges against Koukas to be dropped and we repeat our appeal to the Moroccan authorities to decriminalise press offences," the organisation added. "What surprises me most is that I am the main accused in this case, while Nadia Yassine is only charged with participating in the offence", Koukas told Reporters Without Borders. Under Article 41 of the Moroccan press code any insult to the royal family is punishable by a prison sentence of three to five years and a fine of 10,000 to 100,000 dirhams (900 to 9,000 euros). "This sentence is applicable when the publication of a newspaper or writing damages the Islamic religion, the monarchic regime or territorial integrity (…) The court can, in the same judicial ruling, ban the newspaper or writing." Journalists on various papers who picked up Yassine's comments were also summoned by judicial police, but Koukas is the only one to have been charged.