Moroccan Journalist’s Wife Speaks Out: Press Freedom Under Fire in High-Profile Cases

Three of the most outspoken journalists against the Moroccan regime have been convicted in morals cases. The defendants, Taoufik Bouachrine (sentenced to 12 years in prison), Omar Radi (6 years) and Souleimane Raissouni (five years) have always denied the facts and denounced a political trial. Kholoud Mokhtari, Raissouni’s wife, recounts her husband’s journey who celebrated his 50th birthday last year. "A district civil servant in the Rif, his native region," Raissouni became in 2008 "art critic then journalist", before proving himself at "Nichane" and "Al-Massae", where he excelled in investigative journalism, she says in an interview with Le Soir.

Raissouni then became editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Awal, before succeeding Taoufik Bouachrine in 2018 at the newspaper "Akhbar al-Yaoum". That year, Adel Ait Chraa announced on Facebook that he had been the victim of sexual assault by a person whose identity he did not reveal. Two years later, on May 20, 2020, Raissouni was arrested at his home, in a neighborhood facing the Royal Guard, without a complaint having been filed. "We knew this Adel indeed. I had helped him find a job, which was difficult for him (Adel Aït Chraa is homosexual, editor’s note). He had come for me to help him flee his family!" explains Kholoud Mokhtari.

"Adel says that during this visit to our home in 2018, my husband would have sexually assaulted him. Nothing holds in this scenario. In particular, there is a key witness, the cleaning lady who was at our home that day. The court refused to hear her testimony. According to the prosecution, and Adel who finally joined the civil party after Souleimane’s arrest, my husband would have locked the cleaning lady in the kitchen. Not so lucky for them: it’s an American kitchen that nothing separates from the other rooms. Anyway, any exculpatory element was refused by the defense. Souleimane was sentenced to five years at a court hearing where he and his lawyers were absent. The room was empty. I was there, all alone," she details.

Raissouni appealed his conviction. But on February 24, 2022, the court upheld the decision of the lower court, despite the pleadings of his lawyers to bring out the many anomalies in the case file. On July 21, 2022, the UN Working Group concluded that Raissouni’s detention is "arbitrary", given the seriousness "of the violations of the right to a fair trial". The journalist’s wife confides that she is struggling to survive. "I’m a screenwriter. Unemployed. Even my friends don’t dare hire me, I can understand them. I’m defamed on some sites, treated as a prostitute just because public figures come to our house to show their solidarity," laments Mokhtari. "In Morocco, any opponent or considered as such is stifled," she concludes.