Moroccan journalist sentenced to 1.5 years after remarks about politician

RABAT, Morocco -- A Moroccan journalist who accused a prominent politician of fraud was sentenced to prison Monday in a case that has sparked international condemnation from press freedom advocates.

Hamid Mahdaoui will serve a 1.5-year sentence and be fined an equivalent of $150,000 after being found guilty of defamation, his attorney Mohamed Hedach told The Associated Press.

Mahdaoui, the editor in chief of Badil.info, was prosecuted after a complaint from Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi. Mahdaoui had posted a video on his website accusing Ouahbi of corruption and fraud, both of which the justice minister denied.

The accusations came after the royalist Party of Authenticity and Modernity, which Ouahbi headed, became ensnared in controversy last year when an imprisoned Malian drug dealer implicated party members in a sprawling drug trafficking case that shook the North African kingdom.

Mahdaoui’s case garnered international criticism because he is being prosecuted under Morocco’s penal code rather than the press code governing journalistic conduct.

Reporters Without Borders’ North Africa representative Khaled Drareni in October called it a “misuse of the justice system to intimidate and silence the press.”

Mahdaoui was imprisoned in 2017 after publicly throwing his support behind activists who led protests over social and economic inequities. He was sentenced to three years for not reporting to authorities that a Dutch Moroccan man had told him arms were being sent to the protesters. He later said he didn't report it because he didn't take the information seriously.

Morocco has in recent years been criticized for imprisoning journalists and activists known for criticizing the government. King Mohammed VI pardoned and released the country’s three most prominent imprisoned journalists — Omar Radi, Taoufik Bouachrine and Soulaimane Raissouni — in July.

Hedach, Mahdaoui’s attorney, said Mahdaoui had not decided whether to appeal Monday’s verdict.