According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), charges against Moroccan journalist Hamid El Mahdaoui «reek of an arbitrary use of the law on an outspoken journalist by authorities who have been radically reducing the space for critical reporting and commentary». In an article made public Wednesday, 18th of July, the international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights reacted to the three-year sentence handed down to El Mahdaoui for «failing to report a security threat». It is a «dubious charge», wrote HRW, insisting that the «court did not accept Mahdaoui's main line of defense, which was that, as a well-known journalist, he repeatedly receives calls from strangers, and that he had concluded the caller's declarations were idle chatter that did not warrant alerting the authorities». Hamid Mahdaoui was convicted by the Casablanca court of appeals on June the 28th, almost one year after he was arrested in Al Hoceima when covering a Hirak protest. 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. After his arrest, El Mahdaoui 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.
