Moroccan journalist on trial for an abortion she says she never had

A Moroccan political reporter and a Sudanese university professor were preparing to get married over the weekend. Instead, Hajar Raissouni and Rifaat al-Amin were arrested Aug. 31 as they were leaving a gynecologist’s office in the Moroccan capital Rabat.

They were charged with having sex outside of marriage and an abortion, both crimes in the North African kingdom.

The arrests outraged many in Morocco who saw it as another example of the government persecuting critical journalists and activists by charging them with moral crimes. The doctor has been charged with performing an abortion. But he insists he did not.