Jailed Moroccan Journalist Denied Leave for Son’s Birthday Amid Rif Protest Controversy

Hamid El Mahdaoui was sentenced to three years in prison for "failure to report a crime against state security". He would have had a telephone communication with an individual established in the Netherlands during which the latter would have revealed to him that weapons were going to reach the activists of the Rif. That’s it!

This Friday, this journalist and director of the (no longer existing) website Al Badil, requested from the judge, during a hearing, an exceptional 3-hour permit to be able to be present at his son’s birthday. But the judge refused.

We do not know what the usual procedures are regarding exceptional exit permits requested by detainees or the leeway of judges in the decision, but we know that this type of permit exists, for cases such as funerals for example.