Release of editor who was imprisoned for libelling government minister

Reporters without borders today welcomed the release yesterday of Anas Tadili, the editor of the weekly Akhbar al-Ousbouaâ, who had been in prison since 29 September 2004 for libelling a government minister. “While relieved by Tadili's release, we must reiterate that there is no justification for the use of prison sentences to punish defamation and we urge King Mohammed to give an assurance that no journalist will ever again be imprisoned for press offences,” the press freedom organisation said. The finance minister reportedly pressured the justice minister to have Tadili arrested because he believed he was the target of a report published on 9 April 2004 referring to a government's minister's presumed homosexuality. Tadili's lawyer said the public prosecutor had to threaten the director of Salé prison, near Rabat, with prosecution in order to get him to comply with the release order which he, the prosecutor, had issued. The prison director had apparently received conflicting ministerial instructions not to free Tadili. “Even if calling someone a homosexual is very serious insult in Muslim culture, there is no justification for imposing a one-year prison sentence,” Tadili's lawyer told Reporters Without Borders by telephone at the time of the trial. “I think that what counted in the court's eyes was that M. Oualalou, the acting finance minister, was a teacher at the royal school.”