Reporter sent back to prison
THE MOROCCAN supreme court has rejected an appeal by journalist Mustapha Hurmatallah against a seven-month jail sentence over a story in Al Watan Al An newspaper last July that revealed internal government documents on security and terrorism.
Mustapha Hurmatallah and managing director Abderrahim Ariri were arrested and charged with receiving documents obtained by criminal means. Abderrahim Ariri received a six-month suspended sentence.
The Casablanca appeals court reduced both sentence by a month but now both have been confirmed by the supreme court.
The International Federation of Journalists backed the Moroccan journalists’ union’s call for the charges to be dropped. IFJ President Jim Boumelha, who is himself Moroccan, said: “There can be no claim to press freedom in Morocco if the courts are throwing journalists into prison for doing their job.”