In Morocco, justice reduces the sentence of a human rights activist

Moroccan justice on Wednesday, October 11, reduced the sentence of a human rights activist to eight months in prison for comments deemed offensive to the king and the justice system. Saïda El Alami was prosecuted for “insulting the king” and “insulting a magistrate or a public official in the exercise of their functions” following comments made during her previous trial. In May, she was sentenced to two years in prison at first instance.

The Casablanca Court of Appeal “reduced her sentence but it remains a conviction, we would have hoped that she would be exonerated”, his lawyer, Ahmed Aït Bennacer, told AFP. Saïda El Alami, 49, is already serving a three-year prison sentence, handed down on appeal in September 2022, for “insulting a constituted body” and “dissemination of false allegations or misleading facts with a view to harming the privacy of people or defame them” on Facebook. Defense “will request the merger of the two sentences”specified M^e Aït Bennacer.

Placed in detention since the end of March 2022, Saïda El Alami, who presents herself as a “political dissident” on Facebook, regularly published writings critical of the authorities. She notably denounced officials of the security services and the ” corruption “ within the justice system, according to Amnesty International. Human rights defenders in Morocco and internationally are calling for his release.