Editor Anas Tadili still in prison past
Morocco, Politics, 11/5/2005

Reporters Without Borders has noted that Anas Tadili, editor of the weekly Akhbar al-Ousbouaa, should have been let out of jail on 29 September 2005 after completing a one-year sentence for libelling a government minister "We do not understand this unrelenting attitude towards Tadili on the part of the judicial authorities," the press freedom organization said. Judicial and prison officials have turned a deaf ear to pleas from Tadili's family and lawyers.

Detained since 15 April 2004, Tadili is being held in especially harsh conditions. He is in a "high security" wing of KŽnitra prison. He is banned from communicating with other inmates and using recreation areas. He has diabetes, high cholesterol, rheumatism and heart problems. He is also being treated for depression.

On 19 September 2004, a Rabat court sentenced him on appeal to a year in prison and a fine of 10,000 dirhams (approx. 900 euros) for reporting on 9 April that the police had caught a government minister in a homosexual act at a beach resort in northern Morocco. The report did not name the minister, but his identity was clear from the context.

Six days after the report was published, Tadili was jailed in connection with a 10-year-old case that was unrelated to his work as a journalist. A court ordered his imprisonment for debt on the grounds that he was unable to immediately pay a fine of 3 million dirhams (approx. 270,000 euros). The order was only lifted seven months later.

Tadili had written "I am sending this letter to you via my family to protest against the actions of the judicial and prisons authorities against me. I have suffered too much in this sordid place, too much for myself and for all my colleagues in this noble nation of ours who act as educators and safeguards against the government.

"It matters little to me whether I have been convicted fairly or unfairly, but I am appalled to be forced to remain in prison although the Rabat appeal court issued a ruling in my favour against the order of imprisonment for debt.

"As I was for a long time a senior official in the justice ministry, I know what I am talking about...

"At my trial, I had several well-placed enemies, both civilian and military, and that did not make it easy for me to pull through, as IÕm sure you will understand. But if that was bad enough, it is the absolute limit that they are now refusing to apply a Rabat appeal court ruling in my favour issued in His MajestyÕs name against a lower court decision."

Previous Stories:
  Journalist gets one year sentence for defamation   (10/1/2004)
  Moroccan editor gets 11-month prison sentence in 2nd defamation case   (6/23/2004)
  Paper editor gets 6 months in jail for defamation   (6/2/2004)

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