Moroccan Activist’s Appeal Trial Delayed as Supporters Demand Release

The appeal trial of Saida El-Alami did not take place on August 31. It has been postponed to September 12 next. Several Moroccan activists gathered in front of the Casablanca Court of Appeal to denounce "the censorship of freedom of expression" in Morocco and call for the immediate release of the human rights defender.

Saida El-Alami had been arrested on March 23 and then placed in detention because of critical posts against the authorities on social networks. In April, the Casablanca court of first instance had sentenced her to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 dirhams for "contempt of public officials in the exercise of their functions, attack on justice and "dissemination of false allegations".

Last month, the member of the "Moroccan Women Against Political Detention" collective began a hunger strike to protest against her "unfair trial". On Tuesday, she had to end this voluntary deprivation of food for health reasons, her family said.