(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the 9 December 2004 beating of a reporter by police in Rabat and the imprisonment of a guide on trumped up drug charges in mid-December, after he worked with a reporter investigating drug trafficking in the central Rif region. The intimidation of journalists by means of violence or manipulation of […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the 9 December 2004 beating of a reporter by police in Rabat and the imprisonment of a guide on trumped up drug charges in mid-December, after he worked with a reporter investigating drug trafficking in the central Rif region.
The intimidation of journalists by means of violence or manipulation of the judicial system is totally unacceptable, RSF said.
Lahcen Aouad of the weekly “Assahifa Al Ousbouia” was assaulted by police while covering a march on Parliament by unemployed high school graduates demanding their “legitimate and legal right to work.”
Aouad was asked repeatedly by police to show his press card. According to the journalist, police insulted and threatened him in an attempt to get him to leave. Finally, while photographing demonstrators being beaten by police, he was himself kicked and beaten with batons. Police also tried to grab his camera. Aouad received multiple bruises on his head and legs and has been told to take three weeks’ medical leave.
RSF calls on the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the assault in order to identify and punish those responsible as soon as possible.
In a separate incident, Mohamed Bouhcini was targeted after acting as a guide for Chadwane Bensalmia, of the weekly magazine “Tel Quel”, during a week-long trip to the central Rif mountains to research a story on drug trafficking. On 12 December, Bensalmia returned to the magazine’s office in Casablanca while Bouhcini returned to Ouezzane (about 220 km from Casablanca). The same day, he received anonymous calls on his cellular phone threatening him for helping Bensalmia.
On 13 December, Bouhcini was summoned to the police chief’s office in Ouezzane, where he was told a prisoner convicted on drug trafficking charges alleged that the journalist had delivered hashish to him. Although the prison register showed Bouhcini had never set foot in the prison, the journalist was incarcerated in the same prison as his accuser and has been held there ever since. No complaint has been brought against him to date.
An exceptional aspect of the case is that the state prosecutor, Yassine Oumama, personally asked that Bouhcini be brought before an investigating judge. Bouhcini could face up to eight years in prison if convicted on the drug trafficking charge. Three requests for his provisional release have been denied.
Reached by telephone, “Tel Quel” editor Ahmed R. Benchemsi told RSF, “Mohammed Bouhcini’s imprisonment is a flagrant violation of the freedom to inform (. . .) Harassing journalists’ sources and contacts is a new way to intimidate them and prevent them from doing their work.”
A number of Moroccan newspapers, including “Al Ayyam”, “Al Ahdath”, “Al Maghribiya” and “Le Journal Hebdomadaire”, have launched a solidarity action calling for Bouhcini’s release.
RSF calls on the Moroccan authorities to produce evidence of Bouhcini’s guilt or order his immediate release.
