(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed serious concern about the health of imprisoned newspaper editor Ali Lmrabet. The organisation has called for his personal physician to be allowed to visit him in the Rabat hospital where he is being held, and for Lmrabet to be moved to a private room. A group of four doctors who […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed serious concern about the health of imprisoned newspaper editor Ali Lmrabet. The organisation has called for his personal physician to be allowed to visit him in the Rabat hospital where he is being held, and for Lmrabet to be moved to a private room.
A group of four doctors who visited the journalist on 29 June, six days after he called off the hunger strike he had kept up for 50 days, reported finding alarming symptoms, such as “nervous disorders and renal colic.” A close relative said he is suffering from “terrible diarrhea, which is aggravating his dehydration, and biological imbalances.” Other sources, however, have said his health is improving.
RSF said Lmrabet’s personal doctor, Jamila Rhandy, who has not been able to see the editor since 13 June, should be allowed to resume visits and to carry out all necessary tests. The organisation also said Lmrabet should be given his own room in the hospital because his immune defences are very weak.
BACKGROUND:
The owner and editor of two satirical weeklies – the French-language “Demain Magazine” and the Arabic-language “Douman” – Lmrabet was imprisoned on 21 May and is currently serving a three-year sentence for “insulting the person of the king”, committing an “offence against territorial integrity” and an “offence against the monarchy”. He was originally sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, but on 17 June his sentence was reduced to three years on appeal. The court also fined him 20,000 dirhams (approx. US$2,200; 2,000 euros) and banned his two weeklies. He was rushed from prison to Rabat’s Avicenne hospital on 26 May.
