ZCZC
BFF-09
MOROCCO-RIGHTS-MEDIA
Moroccan journalist appears in court on spy charges
RABAT, Dec 25, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Prominent Moroccan journalist and human
rights activist Omar Radi appeared in court on Thursday, his lawyer said,
after being detained several months earlier on accusations of espionage.
Radi was placed in pre-trial detention in July on charges of receiving
foreign funds for the purpose of harming “state security”, the justice
ministry said at the time.
The investigation into Radi’s purported receipt of foreign funds began in
late June, the day after an Amnesty International report alleged that
software developed by Israeli security firm NSO Group was used to insert spy-
ware on Radi’s mobile phone.
The 34-year-old is also accused separately of rape.
Lawyer Miloud Kandil said Radi appeared Thursday in the criminal chamber of
the Casablanca appeals court over the espionage case.
Radi professed his innocence and said his foreign dealings under
investigation were “purely professional and connected to his work as a
journalist,” Kandil said.
He declined to provide further details.
The Moroccan authorities have described Amnesty’s accusation as
“tendentious”.
In July, Radi’s supporters released a video in which he dismissed the
spying accusation as “ridiculous” and a form of revenge following the Amnesty
report.
Radi and Souleimane Raissouni, another detained journalist, held a 24-hour
hunger strike earlier this month to “protest their stay in preventive
detention without sentencing”, according to a statement released by their
supporters.
Raissouni, the chief editor of Moroccan independent daily Akhbar Al-Yaoum,
has been detained since late May.
His laywer said in July that the 48-year-old was under investigation for
charges of “indecent assault” against another man.
His supporters have alleged that his case is part of a campaign of
defamation targeting journalists and rights activists critical of the
Moroccan authorities.
Raissouni has also proclaimed his innocence.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0929 hrs