The editor of two Moroccan satirical magazines, who was jailed last month for slandering King Mohammed VI, is close to death after a 39 day hunger strike to protest his sentence, his lawyer said on Friday.
”Ali Lamrabet is in immediate danger, he has lost 22 kilos since he started his hunger strike on May 6,” Abderrahim Jamai said, calling for ”urgent national and
international action” to secure his release.
Lamrabet’s family issued a statement expressing its fears that he was about to ”enter a phase of no-return which will either lead to his death or leave him with serious consequences for the rest of his life”.
Lamrabet, a dual French-Moroccan national who is editor-in-chief of the satirical magazines Demain and Doumane, was sentenced on May 21 to four years in prison after his magazines published articles on topics including a parliamentary vote on the king’s civil list, the budget of the royal palace, and a cartoon on the history of slavery in Morocco.
The Rabat court also banned the two magazines. – Sapa-AFP