- RABAT: A Moroccan appeal court on Monday upheld a newspaper editor’s one-year jail sentence for criticizing the security service’s counter-terrorism campaign and what he said were unfair trials of conservatives.
Rachid Nini, who partly owns the Almassae newspaper, was sentenced in June on criminal charges that include “discrediting a court, trying to influence the judiciary and publishing information about untrue criminal offenses.” Since his arrest on April 28, the court has repeatedly denied him bail. The official MAP news agency said Casablanca’s appeal court upheld the June ruling which also includes a small fine. Nini, 40, has has become a household name in a country where newspaper sales are among the lowest in the region by writing about alleged widepsread corruption in government circles.