A Moroccan journalist was sentenced to a year in prison for extra-marital sex and having an abortion, in a case activists say is politically motivated.
Hajar Raissouni, 28, and her fiancé were arrested in August as they left a gynaecologist’s office. She maintains she was was not having an abortion, which is illegal in Morocco, but having a blood clot removed.
Both Ms Raissouni and her partner were sentenced to a year in jail, while her doctor was sentenced to two years in jail and two years of a suspended medical license once released.
Ms Raissouni works for Akhbar Al-Youm, an independent newspaper which has criticised the government. Her uncle Souliman Raissouni is the newspaper’s editor-in-chief and a vocal critic of the state, while another uncle, Ahmed Raissouni, is a former leader of a leading Islamist party in the country.
Ms Raissouni’s lawyer said sufficient evidence had been provided to prove no abortion took place and the prosecution was a politically motivated attack on her and her newspaper. “We are shocked by this verdict," he said, adding that the family will appeal.
“This is a black day for freedom in Morocco,” said Ahmed Benchemsi of Human Rights Watch on Twitter.
FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images
Ms Raissouni said she was subjected to forced medical examinations while under arrest to determine whether she had had sex and an abortion, and police questioned her about her work and her uncles. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights said the exams were tantamount to torture.
The case has become a rallying cry for women’s rights activists campaigning against laws that target women.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
In response to Ms Raissouni’s arrest, a female-led group of Moroccan artists and activists formed, calling themselves the Moroccan Outlaws. They sent the government a petition containing the signatures of 490 Moroccan public figures, mostly women, who declared that if Ms Raissouni has broken the law then they also do so every day. A similar petition distributed among the general pubic garnered a further 8,000 signatures.
In 2018 nearly 15,000 people were prosecuted in Morocco under a law prosecuting sexual intercourse outside marriage. Meanwhile between 600-800 illegal, and as such, life-threatening, abortions are carried out each day.
"These laws are used as tools of vengeance for people’s political or ideological positions,” said Kamira Nadir, a publisher who co-founded Moroccan outlaws. “These kinds of laws shouldn’t exist anymore in Morocco. The real definition of a crime is what they did to her, what they made her suffer, not what she did."