Morocco: AI Makes Fresh Calls over Radi

Amnesty International (AI) has called on the authorities in Morocco to grant Omar Radi a fair appeal trial in accordance with international standards.

AI also called on the authorities to ensure that Radi’s detention is allowed to be reviewed by a court.

The organisation made the calls in a letter to the country’s Head of Government and the Minister of Justice.

AI said Radi’s right to consult with his lawyers privately was not respected during his trial at the Casablanca Court of Appeal.

The rights organisation noted that a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found in another case similar to Radi’s case that the detention of the Moroccan journalist amounted to ‘judicial harassment’.

Radi’s investigations have focused on corruption by state authorities and political affairs, including the relations between political powers and business elites in Morocco.

Radi, in 2016, published a report widely known as Servants of the State, where he listed the names of around 100 senior officials alleged to have illegally acquired state land.

He was arrested on 29 July, 2020, and charged with ‘harming the internal and external security of Morocco’. He was also charged with receiving funds from sources ‘linked to foreign intelligence agencies’.

Radi was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison on 19 July, 2021, of espionage and rape after a colleague accused him of assaulting her.

He was fined 200,000 dirhams (U.S.$20,000) in damages for the rape complainant. Imad Stitou, a fellow journalist tried with him as a ‘participant’ in the rape case, was sentenced to one year, including six months suspended.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) had declared that Radi was denied a fair trial after conducting an extensive review of the case.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch also held that Radi’s fair trial rights were violated and his conviction may have a broader ‘chilling’ effect on the speech of other Moroccans.

‘While the rape accusations must each be considered on their merits and Amnesty International is not well placed to assess their veracity, I note with concern that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found in another case that the detention of another Moroccan journalist also accused of rape amounted to “judicial harassment attributable to nothing other than his investigative journalism”, AI’s letter read.

‘Therefore, I urge you to grant Omar Radi a fair appeal trial in accordance with international fair trial standards and to ensure he is immediately provided an opportunity for his ongoing detention to be reviewed by a court, with a presumption that he will be released pending the end of his trial’.

The government of Morocco, in April 2021, had come out to dismiss the stance of human rights defenders that the prosecution of Radi was linked to his criticism of state authorities.

The Moroccan authorities, in a statement, argued that the government had not violated Radi’s human rights.

Source: Amnesty International

Photo source: Free Omar Radi

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