Morrocan Journalist Imprisoned For Alleged Abortion

Tourists walk around the city wall of Rabat, where Raissouni was arrested after leaving the gynecologist. (Wikimedia Commons)

Hajar Raissouni, a journalist for an independent newspaper, and her fiance were sentenced to prison on September 30 for an alleged abortion in Rabat, Morocco. Doctors and hospital staff who attended to Raissouni for internal bleeding were also arrested and given prison sentences of varying lengths. 

Raissouni has denied having an abortion, instead claiming that the government’s move to arrest her is politically motivated. As a reporter for the newspaper Akhbar al-Yaoum, Raissouni writes for one of the few papers that still reports unfavorably on the Moroccan government. She recently published the results of her government interrogation which questioned her uncle, president of one of Morocco’s largest Muslim movements. 

Though denying any connection between her arrest and her published work, the government is facing enormous backlash from human rights activists and the public. Ahmed Benchemsi, regional communications director for Human Rights Watch, responded to the arrest saying, “Morocco’s arrest, prosecution, and brutal violation of Hajar Raissouni’s private life illustrate the country’s lack of respect for individual freedoms and apparently the selective enforcement of unjust laws to punish critical journalism and activism.”

Rasissouni’s lawyer, Abdelmoula El Marouri, said that the verdict will be appealed as the medical evidence presented in court should have led to an acquittal. Anti-abortion laws in Morocco are not strictly enforced, with few arrests made. Abortion is currently legal if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.

Though a change in national law in 2016 forbids the imprisonment of journalists, the government has taken action against the media in new ways. The founder of the independent newspaper where Raissouni writes, Taoufik Bouachrine, received 12 years in prison for sexual assault in what the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called an unfair case.

Raissouni’s case represents the continuation of a fight for the freedom of press and information throughout the country, her supporters say.