MOROCCO: Journalist charged, jailed for premarital sex, abortion

A court in Morocco has sentenced a 28-year old journalist, Hajar Raissouni to a year in prison for pre-marital sex and having an abortion.

The pen-pusher who was wearing a black veil covering her head, looked calm on arrival at the courtroom in Rabat.

During court proceeding, Hajar and her fiancé, a Sudanese national, denied that an abortion had taken place.

Hajar who works for an independent newspaper critical of the authorities denied the charges, saying she had sought treatment for internal bleeding.

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The journalist was arrested with her fiancé as they left a gynaecologist’s clinic in the capital, Rabat, in August.

However, activists say Hajar dilemma is part of a crackdown on critical reporters with a journalist at the Akhbar Al-Yaoum daily, denouncing the case against her as a “political trial”, saying she had been questioned by police about her family and her writing.

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