Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – Hamid El Mahdaoui is facing new charges. This time, the journalist has been accused of “non-denunciation of a crime against the security of the state,” according to his lawyer Mohamed Massaoudi.
The prosecution’s charges are based on a telephone conversation that the Badil Info editor had with a Moroccan resident in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands resident had told El Mahdaoui that “she was going to bring tanks into Morocco,” a member of the journalist’s defense committee, Massaoudi told Telquel, referring to the incident as “absurd and insane.”
The journalist is being prosecuted for “non-denunciation of a crime against the security of the State,” said his lawyer.
On August 2, El Mahdaoui was heard by the investigating judge in the presence of about 20 lawyers of his defense committee.
During his hearing, El Mahdaoui told the judge that the charges against him were merely a pretext and that he was being targeted for his critical views of the governments a journalist and activist, said his lawyer.
The journalist’s defense committee filed an application to the judge requesting the journalist to be prosecuted on probation.
”We are awaiting the decision of the judge, and we will also know whether the investigation will continue or whether the trial will begin,” added the lawyer.
On July 20, the day of a banned mass march in Al Hoceima calling for the release of detained Rif activists, police arrested the journalist and editor-in-chief of the website Badil Info for “inciting for participation in a banned protest” and “breaking the law through speeches and shouting in public places.”
