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Moroccan Journalist’s Health Deteriorates After 40-Day Hunger Strike in Prison, RSF Urges Release
Wednesday 23 October 2019, by
The state of health of the journalist Rabie Al Ablaq, detained in the context of the Rif Hirak, is a concern for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which has called for his immediate release. It has become a matter of health and life to be saved at all costs, according to RSF.
According to HuffPost, the journalist, detained in the local prison of Tanger 2, would have started a hunger strike for more than 40 days. Deeply concerned about the journalist’s situation, RSF "calls on the Moroccan authorities to release him as soon as possible".
In a statement published on October 22, RSF stresses that Rabie Al Ablaq’s health has been deteriorating for a few days, in his cell. Yet on October 20, the prison administration had claimed that the detainee was doing well and that he had "never filed a notice of hunger strike and that his daily activity proves that his health is normal".
For the North Africa office of RSF, "denying the deplorable state of health of Rabie Al Ablaq is unworthy and unfair". The journalist "must be released as soon as possible in order to receive appropriate care under normal conditions".
To recall, Rabie Al Ablaq was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 2,000 dirhams in June 2017 for "dissemination of false news" and "usurpation of the profession of journalist".
But since his conviction, he has never ceased to proclaim his innocence, multiplying hunger and thirst strikes. HuffPost, which gets its information from the Collective for the Defense of Hirak Detainees, writes that in August 2017, the journalist had been taken to the hospital after 36 days of hunger strike.
Apart from the collective, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) had denounced the health condition of several detainees, including the journalist. And, in a letter addressed to the Head of Government, the Minister of State in charge of Human Rights and the General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR), the association had written to report that the detainee "was between life and death".