Moroccan justice has decided to grant, on Tuesday, December 31, provisional release to the journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi, placed in detention last week for having criticized on Twitter a court decision.

His lawyer Me Omar Benjelloun confirmed to AFP that Omar Radi, 33, "will appear on January 2 in freedom". However, he was unable to say when exactly the reporter would be released.

Omar Radi was arrested last Thursday for a tweet published last April in which he castigated the verdict of a magistrate against members of "Hirak" - a protest movement that agitated northern Morocco in 2016 and 2017 - sentenced to sentences of up to 20 years in prison. "No forgetting, no forgiveness with these officials without dignity!", He had written, describing the judge as "executioner".

A wave of indignation

His trial began on the day of his arrest, and the case sparked outrage in the kingdom, where hundreds of people demonstrated on Saturday to call for his release and the charges.

Omar Radi has collaborated with several Moroccan and international media and published remarkable studies on the rent economy or the collusion between power and money. More recently, he has covered the many protest movements that have agitated marginalized regions of the kingdom.

In a few days in Morocco, a youtubeur was sentenced to four years in prison for "insulting the king", a high school student was sentenced to three years in prison for a publication on Facebook and an activist was detained for a publication on social networks.

If a new Press Code no longer providing for prison terms entered into force in 2016 in Morocco, journalists still continue to be prosecuted according to the Criminal Code, as can internet users for being written on the social media.

In its latest annual press freedom ranking, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Morocco 135th out of 180 countries.

With AFP

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