Morocco pardons journalist Hajar Raissouni jailed on abortion fees

A Moroccan journalist sentenced to a 12 months in prison for premarital intercourse and having an abortion has been pardoned by means of King Mohammed VI, officers say.

The justice ministry stated the king’s intervention within the high-profile case was once “an act of compassion and mercy”.

Journalist Hajar Raissouni, 28, made a victory signal as she left a jail on Wednesday in conjunction with her fiancé, who was once additionally pardoned.

Activists say her case is a part of a crackdown on impartial journalists.

Premarital intercourse and abortions are unlawful in Morocco.

Ms Raissouni works for the Akhbar Al-Yaoum day by day, a newspaper essential of the government.

She was once together with her Sudanese fiancé as they left a gynaecologist’s health center within the capital Rabat in August. She denied the entire fees, announcing she had sought remedy for inner bleeding.

Ms Raissouni, who later denounced the case towards her as a “political trial”, was once sentenced in September.

The prosecutor within the case stated the instances of the journalist’s arrest had not anything to do together with her paintings as a journalist, and that the health center she had visited was once beneath police surveillance on suspicion of sporting out unlawful abortions.

The court docket sentenced her fiancé to a 12 months in jail and her physician to 2 years. The physician’s assistant and a nurse on the health center had been additionally discovered in charge however got suspended sentences.