Moroccan Journalist Raissouni’s Appeal Trial Delayed, Provisional Release Request Pending

At this first hearing, the defense of journalist Souleiman Raissouni requested the court to grant him provisional release. The court adjourned the request to be examined at the next hearing scheduled for March 2.

At the opening of this trial, a sit-in was organized in front of the courthouse to demand Raissouni’s release. The protesters, mainly human rights defenders, journalists and relatives of the accused, consider that his detention is "arbitrary" and constitutes "an attack on freedom of expression".

Deploring the continued imprisonment of her husband and the "psychological torture" he is undergoing, his wife, who also took part in this sit-in, hopes that justice will prosecute him while he is at liberty.

To recall, Souleiman Raissouni, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Akhbar Al Yaoum, is being prosecuted for "rape of a young man and kidnapping". He was arrested in front of his home on Friday, May 22 and later brought before the investigating judge of the Court of Appeal of Casablanca. The court ordered his pre-trial detention for the purposes of the investigation. The journalist has never acknowledged the facts and claims his innocence.