Moroccan journalist gets one-year suspended sentence

The first instance court of Casablanca sentenced on Friday night, Mustapha Alaoui, manager of "Al Ousboue" weekly to one year suspended prison term and to a fine of 500 DH (US$ 52.6).

The court also decided to suspend the newspaper for three months.

The defense said it will appeal the publication suspension decision.

The public prosecutor had requested the publication ban in addition to a prison sentence against the editor.

After the trial, Alaoui rejected all the charges held against him, mainly the count of "hiding a document likely to help in an ongoing investigation on offenses." He also stood trial for "publishing wrong information likely to disturb public order," under articles 592 and 593 of the penal law and article 42 of the press code.

He was arrested for publishing a communiqu? in which an underground group claims responsibility for some of the terrorist attacks perpetrated last May 16 in Casablanca.

The journalist first stood trial on June 20 in the appeal court of Rabat which ruled it was incompetent in this case. On July 3rd, he appeared before the first instance court of Rabat that had rebuffed the defense's request to grant the defendant temporary release.

The public prosecutor of the Casablanca court of appeal ordered on June 05 the arrest of the editor for publishing the statement, which other publications abstained from circulating.