Moroccan Journalists Launch Hunger Strike in Pre-Trial Detention

Soulaimane Raissouni, 48, is the first to start a "protest fast" on Thursday, reports AFP, adding that the prison administration could not dissuade him "due to the serious consequences of this decision on his health," the administration explained in a statement, specifying that faced with his refusal, he "has been placed under medical supervision." Omar Radi, 34, joined the movement on Friday, explained Me Miloud Kandil during a press conference in Casablanca, stressing that the two journalists "meet the conditions to enjoy it" and "wish to have fair trials."

The two journalists are being prosecuted in separate cases, but both are related to their critical publications, according to their supporters, specifying that more than once, the two journalists have seen their request for provisional release rejected by the courts.

Radi, known for his commitment to human rights, is being prosecuted in a double case of "rape" and espionage, the press agency details, reporting that it was during a brief hearing in early April that his trial was postponed to April 27.

"Indecent assault with violence" and "sequestration" are what is being blamed, after a complaint filed by an LGBT activist, on Raissouni, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Akhbar Al-Yaoum, absent from the newsstands since mid-March for financial reasons, the same source notes. His trial, initially expected to open on February 9, is set for April 15, after two postponements.

For the record, the Franco-Moroccan historian and human rights activist Maâti Monjib, 60, in pre-trial detention as part of an investigation for "money laundering," was released on provisional release at the end of March, after three months of pre-trial detention and nineteen days of hunger strike. His appeal trial opened on April 8 and was postponed to June 10.

The Moroccan authorities, for their part, always mention the independence of the judiciary and the compliance of the procedures.