Moroccan journalist Hamid El Mahdaoui was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3000 dirhams on Thursday, 28th of June, by the Criminal chamber of the Casablanca Court of Appeals. El Mahdaoui, who is also the founder and the editor-in-chief of online news website Badil.info, was found guilty of failing to report «an attempt to endanger internal state security» to the authorities. On the 26th of June, the Casablanca Court of Appeals decided to separate his trial from the trial of 53 co-defendants who, like him, were tried in connection with Hirak protests in the Rif region. El Mahdaoui was arrested the 20th of July, 2017, while covering Hirak protests in Al Hoceima. In September, he was sentenced by an Al Hoceima court to three months in prison and a fine of 20.000 Dirhams for «inviting» people to «participate in a banned demonstration». For the record, the journalist has been convicted several times in the past. In June 2015, El Mahdaoui was given a four-month suspended prison sentence for articles revealing that police tortured an activist called Karim Lachkar in an Al-Hoceima police station in May 2014, reports Reports Without Borders. In June 2016, he was convicted for an article he wrote, accusing the justice ministry of «claiming excessive travel expenses», says the same source.
