(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested over the detention of Mustapha Alaoui, managing editor of the Arabic-language weekly “Al Ousboue”. He has been held under a new anti-terrorism law since 5 June 2003 for publishing a letter from a hitherto unknown group claiming responsibility for three of the five bombings in Casablanca on 16 May. Alaoui, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested over the detention of Mustapha Alaoui, managing editor of the Arabic-language weekly “Al Ousboue”. He has been held under a new anti-terrorism law since 5 June 2003 for publishing a letter from a hitherto unknown group claiming responsibility for three of the five bombings in Casablanca on 16 May.
Alaoui, aged 67, was detained on 5 June at his home and placed in custody. On 7 June, he was rushed to Ibn Rochd hospital in Casablanca after suffering a diabetic attack. On 10 June, he was transferred to Sale prison, near Rabat, and he is expected to appear before an investigating judge on 11 June.
“We call for Alaoui’s immediate release, especially since his health has deteriorated in the course of his detention,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said. “If he has to be interrogated as part of this investigation, he should at least be free when he appears before the judge,” Ménard added. Ménard noted that RSF has previously criticised parts of the anti-terrorism law recently passed by Parliament. “Today we are witnessing the first of the abuses this law is capable of producing,” he added.
Alaoui was arrested shortly after the latest issue of his weekly appeared on newsstands. Its front page carried the text of a letter from an unknown group calling itself Assaïqa claiming three of the five Casablanca bombings. The Prosecutor’s Office described the letter’s publication as “a flagrant violation of criminal law provisions, especially those included in the law on the struggle against terrorism.”
