A Moroccan Journalist Has Been Imprisoned For An Illegal Abortion She Says She Never Had

Hajar Raissouni's supporters claim the charges are in response to her criticism of the country’s government.

Updated on1st October 2019 at 12.29pm

A journalist from Morocco has been jailed for one year after being charged with having an illegal abortion and premarital sex. Hajar Raissouni denies ever having an abortion and says the charges are in response to her coverage of unrest in North Morocco earlier this year.

Raissouni was arrested while leaving a gynaecological clinic in August alongside her fiancé, Rifaat al-Amin, who was been sentenced to one-year in prison for alleged complicity. Medical staff at the clinic, who were also interrogated by police, state they performed an emergency procedure on Raissouni to remove a blood clot. The doctor who performed the procedure was also arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for allegedly performing an abortion.

After being forced to receive a gynaelogical examination, Raissouni was charged and put on trial before being sentenced. ‘The evidence did not sustain the charges,' a statement from TrialWatch – a subset from the Clooney Foundation for Justice – said. ‘The defence asserted that blood tests revealed that the levels of pregnancy hormone in the defendant’s blood were so low that it would have been impossible for her to be eight weeks pregnant as the police’s doctor claimed.’

Raissouni’s supporters state that her imprisonment is a response to her journalistic work, which earlier this year included coverage of unrest in the Rif region of Morocco. According to a letter sent by Raissouni to her newspaper, Akhbar al-Youm, police interrogated her about her political writings while in custody.

Authorities in the country are known to frequently harass reporters via the courts, ranking 135 of 180 countries for press freedom on Reporters Sans Frontières World Press Freedom Index.

‘Sentencing the doctor to two years and Hajar to one, it’s clear that the authorities would like us to think this whole trial is about an illegal abortion,’ said Loubna Rais, a representative for a feminist group in Morocco called Masaktach. ‘But we are all well aware that this was just the pretext to silence a journalist’s right to free speech and a woman’s right to her own life and body, even if her connections appear threatening to political interests.’

Amnesty International has also lambasted the judgement, dubbing it a ‘blow to women’s rights’ and calling for urgent reform of the laws around abortion and premarital sex in Morocco. Currently, abortion is illegal in Morocco except for when a woman’s life is endangered – and she must have permission from her husband. According to abortion-rights activists, 800 abortions are performed daily in Morocco.

According to the lawyer for Raissouni’s doctor, Dr Mohammed Jamal Belkeziz, medical evidence was provided at the trial that proved he never performed an abortion for her. However, the judgement went ahead, with TrialWatch adding it had ‘the hallmarks of an unfair and punitive process’.

If you want to have your say on cases like this, write to your local MP to demand a parliamentary debate on the UK’s response to women’s rights in Morocco.