Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international NGO that promotes and defends freedom of information and press, released on Thursday, 14th of December, a communiqué calling for the release of Ali Anouzla, a journalist whose trial was postponed today. The organizarion also urged the Moroccan judicial authorities to «drop the serious terrorism charges» that are still pending since 2013.
«The Moroccan judicial system's conspiracy against Ali Anouzla must stop,» said Yasmine Kachan head of the RSF’s Tunis Bureau said in the same statement.
«We call for the withdrawal of the baseless charges against this journalist, who was one of RSF's 'information heroes' in 2014. Use of the terrorism law to prosecute journalists violates Morocco's constitution and its international obligations to protect the right to inform.»
For the record, Ali Anouzla who was working before his arrest in September 2013, as an editor for Lakome, a local online newspaper, is facing 30 years in prison for providing «material support for terrorism, justifying terrorism and incitement to commit acts of terrorism» in an article posted on the same website, added the press release.
The authorities indicate that the inclusion on the article hyperlinked the Spanish daily newspaper, El Pais, which had a link to a video that is allegedly published by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).