The trial of a journalist for "illegal abortion" and "sex outside marriage" resumed Monday, September 16, in Rabat, a case that arouses indignation in Morocco.

Hajar Raissouni, a 28-year-old journalist with the Arabic-language daily Akhbar Al-Yaoum, faces up to two years in prison under the Moroccan Penal Code, which punishes non-marital sex and abortion when the mother's life is not not in danger.

The case sparked anger and outrage in the media and on social networks, raising debates about individual freedoms in Morocco and the prosecution of critical voices.

"Political Affair"

On Monday, human rights activists and feminists once again came to court in support, but in much smaller numbers than at the first hearing last week, according to an AFP journalist.

Placed in detention after her arrest in late August in front of a medical office in Rabat, the journalist claims to have been treated for internal bleeding. She denounces a "political affair".

For Reporters Without Borders (RSF), she is "a victim of judicial harassment against journalists".

In the face of the outcry, the prosecutor's office in Rabat said in a statement that his arrest had "nothing to do with his profession of journalist", but was part of a more comprehensive judicial investigation of the medical office. As his request for release was rejected, Hajar Raissouni has been in prison since 31 August.

The journalist was arrested at the same time as her fiancé, a Sudanese academic she was due to marry in mid-September. The gynecologist who treated her, a nurse and a secretary were also detained and tried along with them.

Revision of the law

Doctors' organizations have called for the release of the gynecologist and a "revision by the legislator of the regulation on the relationship between the doctor and his patients in the context of medical secrecy".

A revision of the Penal Code, including provisions on abortion, is on the agenda of parliamentary debates.

Since the arrest of Hajar Raissouni, many voices have been raised asking to decriminalize abortion, including in the ranks of the Islamist party PJD, at the head of the government coalition.

Between 600 and 800 clandestine abortions are performed daily in Morocco, according to estimates of associations. The arrests in abortion cases generally concern practitioners but very rarely patients, according to a statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

With AFP