MOROCCO: Jail term for dissident journalist extended on appeal

The jail term of popular journalist and publisher of a dissident newspaper in Morocco, Taoufik Bouachrine, has been lengthened by a court in the city of Rabat.

The jail sentence of the pen pusher who had been found guilty of human trafficking, abuse of power for sexual purposes, rape and attempted rape, has now been extended from a 12 year prison term to 15 years on Friday following an appeal by the public prosecutor.

The charges against the journalist which he denies and says are politically motivated were based on complaints, testimonies and about 50 videos seized from his office, purporting to show him in a variety of sexual acts.

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However, his defence team said the videos were faked and in any case showed “consensual relations”.

Earlier this year, rights group, Amnesty International called for the publisher’s release, saying his imprisonment was a “matter of freedom of expression”.

A United Nations Human Rights Council working group also reported this year that Bouachrine was the victim of “arbitrary detention” and “judicial harassment”.

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