Two journalists jailed for blaspheming minister

A Casablanca court sentenced Thursday Abu Bakr Jamai, director of the former weekly "Le Journal," and Ali Amar, director general of the same paper, to three and two months in jail respectively, for libel against foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Mohamed Benaissa.

Jamai and Amar were also sentenced to pay reparations worth two million dirhams ($ 200,000) to Benaissa, in addition to fines worth $ 1,000 each.

The weekly had published stories on the purchase by Benaissa of a residence in Washington in 1996 for the Moroccan embassy in the USA. Benaissa was serving at that time as Moroccan ambassador the USA.