Moroccan Journalist on Trial for an Abortion She Says She Never Had
RABAT, Morocco — This weekend was supposed to have been a celebration of love.
The
invitations had been sent, the flowers and cake ordered. Family and
friends were getting ready to witness the wedding of a young Moroccan
political reporter and a Sudanese university professor she met at a
human-rights conference.
Instead,
Hajar Raissouni and Rifaat al-Amin were arrested on 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, along with
an anesthesiologist and an office assistant, has been charged with
performing an abortion. But he insists that he did not. Quite the
contrary, he said he had saved Ms. Raissouni’s life after she suffered a
blood clot.
The
Moroccan government casts itself as a champion of women’s rights. But
by prosecuting a couple and medical workers for a procedure that is done
hundreds of times every day in the country, critics argue that the
government undercuts its own claims and exposes its determination to
silence dissent.
Ms. Raissouni works
for Akhbar al-Yaoum, a daily newspaper that is one of the few
independent news sources in Morocco. Though it employs fewer than a
dozen reporters and has been in existence for only a decade, the paper
and its journalists have found themselves in court many times.
In 2018, its founder and publisher was sentenced to 12 years in prison on sexual assault charges in a prosecution that the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded was unfair.
Ms.
Raissouni has focused on human rights and political reporting in her
work, said an uncle, Soulaimane Raissouni, who is also the editor of
Akhbar al-Yaoum.
“I don’t have hope,
and neither does she,” said her uncle and editor. “One of her lawyers
told her to prepare herself to spend at least one year in prison.”
Last year, Ms. Raissouni covered protests
in the northern Rif region of Morocco that resulted in the jailing of
hundreds of activists. Another uncle, Ahmed Raissouni, is a vocal critic
of the government.
The press freedom
group Reporters Without Borders says the Moroccan government has long
tried to intimidate activists and journalists. The courts often put them
on trail for matters seemingly unrelated to journalism or political
activities, according to the group.
Abdeslam
Imani, the prosecutor, said the authorities had not targeted Ms.
Raissouni. They had been simply watching the doctor’s clinic to see if
unlawful abortions were taking place, he said.
“The
arrest of the journalist Hajar Raissouni has no connection whatsoever
to her profession,” Mr. Imani said. “It happened by chance when she was
in a medical office that was under surveillance.”
You can read the rest of the story on the New York Times' website.