Local news from StateCollege.com and Centre County Partners. Read about Top Penn State Student Teams Reach Final Phase of Nittany AI Challenge and more from the State College, PA region
July 13, 2021
The United States is disappointed by the sentencing of a prominent Moroccan journalist convicted of sexual assault amid fair trial concerns, the State Department said Monday.
Soulaiman Raissouni, the former editor of the independent Moroccan newspaper Akhbar al-Yaoum, had been jailed without trial since May 2020. On Friday, a court in Casablanca sentenced him to five years in prison and imposed a fine of 100,000 dirhams ($11,205), local media reported.
Raissouni’s poor health caused by the hunger strike he launched in April reportedly prevented him from attending the trial.
“We believe the judicial process that led to his verdict contradicts the Moroccan system’s fundamental promise of fair trials for individuals accused of crimes,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing Monday.