Moroccan scribe jailed for abortion
One-year prison term for Hajar Raissouni and her fiance triggers nationwide protests
RABAT: Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni was sentenced in a Rabat court on Monday to one year in jail for an “illegal abortion” and sexual relations outside marriage, provoking a storm of protest from rights groups.
In a case that has sparked widespread debate on personal and media freedoms in Morocco, her gynaecologist, who spoke up in her defence, was given two years and her Sudanese fiance one year in prison.
“This trial had no foundation - the accusations were baseless,” said Abdelmoula el-marouri, a defence lawyer for Raissouni, after the verdict.
A journalist for Akhbar al-yaoum - an Arabic-language newspaper which has a history of runins with the authorities - she was sentenced under Article 490 of the legal code of the Muslim kingdom. That article punishes sexual relations out of wedlock, while the law also forbids all abortions unless the mother’s life is in danger.
An anaesthetist was handed a one-year suspended sentence and a medical assistant eight months, also suspended.
Meriem Moulay Rachid, lawyer for the convicted gynaecologist, said: “The judicial system has had its word, (but) we will appeal.”
Relatives of Raissouni also told AFP that they would appeal.
Raissouni was arrested on August 31 as she left a clinic in Rabat. In court, she denied having had an abortion, saying she had been treated for internal bleeding - testimony backed up by her gynaecologist.
The journalist denounced the affair as a “political trial”, saying she had been questioned by police about her family and her own writing.
She appeared calm on arrival at the courtroom, wearing a black veil covering her head, and waved to her relatives before taking her place in the dock.
Rights groups were quick to condemn the verdicts. Amnesty International described them as a “devastating blow for women’s rights in Morocco”.
Ahmed Benchemsi, the regional director for Human Rights Watch, described the sentencing of Raissouni and her fiance as a “black day for freedom in Morocco”.
The verdicts were “a blatant injustice, a flagrant violation of human rights, and a frontal attack on individual freedoms,” he wrote on Twitter.