Moroccan journalist Taoufik Bouachrine to file a cassation appeal

A week after his twelve-year sentence was lengthened to 15 years, Moroccan journalist Taoufik Bouachrine has decided to file a cassation appeal, his lawyer said.

Quoted by Arabic-language newspaper Lakome2, the journalist’s lawyer El Hassan El Allaoui said in a statement published, Thursday, on his Facebook page that his client is lodging an appeal at the court of cassation.

Before having his sentence extended, Bouachrine was sentenced to 12 years in jail in November 2018 by the court of first instance. After he appealed against the decision, the prosecution had required 20 years of imprisonment.

For the record, the former editor of Akhbar Alyaoum was arrested in February 2018 following a requisition of his newspaper's premises, where about 50 CDs and cameras were found.

Investigators had estimated that this material was used by Taoufik Bouachrine to document the alleged sexual abuse, based on testimonies collected from then-colleagues and former colleagues alike.