Morocco: Government Replies NGOs over Radi Claim

The government of Morocco has dismissed the stance of human rights defenders that the prosecution of a journalist, Omar Radi, is linked to his criticism of state authorities.

MENA Rights Group and 15 other civil society organisations (CSOs) had urged the Moroccan government to grant Radi provisional release and guarantee fair trial proceedings for all parties.

Radi, who has been in detention since July 2020, is facing trial for allegedly undermining state security and rape. The charges were filed against Radi shortly after Amnesty International published a report alleging that Radi’s phone had been repeatedly targeted with sophisticated spyware.

With regard to the rape charge, a colleague said that Radi raped her on the night of 12 July, 2020, while he (Radi) claims their encounter that night was consensual.

‘National security charges against Mr Radi appear to be based on nothing more than the kind of journalistic or corporate due diligence work and contact with diplomats that many journalists and researchers engage in routinely’, the rights organisations said in a statement.

‘The case file includes no evidence that he provided classified information to anyone, or even had access to such information’.

The CSOs, including Amnesty International, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, CIVICUS, and Committee to Protect Journalists, further called on other countries to pressure Morocco to respect human rights.

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

‘The Moroccan authorities are also astonished at the position of the NGOs that signed this declaration and which have neglected the rights of victims of sexual assault simply because the suspect enjoys a certain status or practices a particular activity at a time when voices are being raised throughout the world against the impunity of the perpetrators of this type of legally incriminated and morally and humanly condemned acts’, the statement by Inter-ministerial Delegation for Human Rights (DIDH) read.

‘The Moroccan authorities stress that the right to demand the suspension of the detention of any person prosecuted falls within the framework of the exercise of the rights of the defence, including the exercise of all legal remedies’.

Source: MAP

Photo source: Fanny Hedenmo/MENA Rights Group

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