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Press & press
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| I don't regret a single word | |
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| News24.com, 04/07/2005 - (SA) |
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| Rabat - Nadia Yassine came to court with all the fanfare befitting a star. Her lips taped to symbolise government attempts to silence her, the Muslim activist was mobbed by hundreds of supporters and 170 defence attorneys. |
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| Her crime: saying in an interview on June 2 the "monarchy is not suitable for Morocco", she prefers a republic and that the regime is near collapse. Now Yassine and the editor of the weekly that published her words face up to five years in prison, the latest target in the kingdom's crackdown on an independent press that has grown more political, transformed in recent years into an opposition platform of sorts. Despite the emergence of a relatively free press, Yassine crossed the line by criticising the monarchy. |
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| Heavy sentence looms |
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| The Moroccan press code deems any insult to the royal family, Islam or the territorial integrity of the monarchy to be punishable by a prison sentence of three to five years and a fine of $1 200 to $12 000, 900. Yassine, 46, is unrepentant. "I don't regret saying a single word," she said on Tuesday. "It was vital for me to say what I felt. Jihad (holy war) for me is not to put a bomb but to express myself." For now, her trial is on hold after a confrontation when she showed up with the 170 lawyers, most of them volunteers who were initially barred from entering the court. Yassine is the daughter of Sheik Abdessalam Yassine, spiritual leader of the banned but tolerated Islamic group Adl wal Ihsan, or Justice and Spirituality. She's no stranger to controversy and it's not the first time she has been dragged to court. |
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| Trying to silence independent publications |
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| Hard-liners in senior positions of power are trying to stymie independent publications that criticise state institutions, according to law professor and analyst Mohamed Darif. Abdelaziz Koukas, editor of al-Osbouia al-Jadida that published Yassine's comments, said authorities expect the media to merely report news generated by King Mohammed VI. But the independent press' "duty is to criticise, said the 40-year-old Koukas. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based watchdog group, said journalists on various papers who picked up Yassine's comments were also summoned by judicial police, but Koukas is the only one to have been charged. The Yassine and Koukas case is being closely watched at a time when the United States is putting pressure on its allies in the region to allow greater democracy. Parliament passed a law last month that criminalises insulting state symbols, including burning the national flag.The move was instigated by the unrest over the Western Sahara. The territory, which Morocco annexed in 1975, is claimed by a rebel government-in-exile. Koukas has published previous interviews with Yassine criticising the monarchy. Yassine said she was prepared to go to prison: "I have been ready for this for 30 years. I want freedom, to be able to say what I want." |
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