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Ali Anouzla looks on in front
of Rabat courthouse on September 29, 2009 during his trial for publishing
articles questioning the health of King Mohammed VI. AFP image
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A Moroccan website editor faces arrest for airing an
Al Qaeda video, which is an "open call for committing acts of terrorism in
the country."
Morocco
on Tuesday arrested a news website's editor and threatened legal action against
Spanish newspaper El
Pais for posting an Al-Qaeda video it said incites terrorism in the
kingdom.
Ali
Anouzla, the director of Lakome's
Arabic language version, was arrested at his office in Rabat mid-morning, with
police also seizing computer equipment, journalists working at the website
said.
His
arrest was ordered following the publication by Lakome of "a video attributed to
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), containing a clear call and a direct
incitement to commit acts of terrorism" in Morocco, the public prosecutor
said in a statement.
Later
in the day, Morocco's justice ministry said the government had also decided to
take legal action against the Spanish newspaper El Pais for having posted the same
video on its website.
Justice
Minister Mustafa Ramid contacted his Spanish counterpart Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon
to express Rabat's concern about the move by Spain's leading centre-left
newspaper, the ministry said.
Controversial
video
By
early evening, the Moroccan journalist was being held in police custody in
Casablanca, his lawyer said.
He
risks prosecution under Morocco's anti-terrorism laws.
The
41-minute video, posted on the Internet last Thursday by AQIM and entitled
"Morocco: the kingdom of corruption and despotism," calls for jihad
in the north African country and lashes out at King Mohamed VI, who is pictured
being engulfed in flames.
It
is thought to be the first of its kind singling out the Moroccan monarchy since
AQIM, the jihadist network's north African franchise, was created in 2007.
The
YouTube version of the video was removed, with the site saying it breached the
company's policy on violence.
Denouncing
Anouzla’s arrest
Lakome, a popular, independent
website which publishes in French and Arabic and often criticises the
authorities, issued a statement condemning Anouzla's arrest.
It
called the decision by the public prosecutor "excessive in more ways than
one," and insisted the website had clearly stated from the beginning that
the video was "propaganda".
"Even
the act of broadcasting an AQIM video is a common practice among the
international media,"
Lakome said.
Anouzla
is an experienced journalist formerly with pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat who
is known for taking a critical position towards state institutions, including
the monarchy, effectively a taboo subject in the Moroccan media, and has been
prosecuted in the past.
Journalists
plan to hold a sit-in outside the police headquarters where he is being held to
call for his release.
Lakome's decision to carry a link to
the video had already drawn sharp criticism from Morocco's mostly pro-regime
media.
French-language
daily L'Opinion
called it "totally reprehensible," accusing the website of ensuring
that a video message supporting terrorism "receives the widest possible
audience."
The
country's national press union stressed its commitment to freedom of
expression, while adding that "this freedom should be used with respect
for the ethics of the profession, and refrain from publishing anything that
could incite violence."
Source: Doha Centre for Media Freedom
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