published for journalistic reasons. The Arabic version of the site only posted a link
to the video, and not the video itself.
Ali Anouzla has faced judicial harassment by Moroccan authorities in the past. In
2009, a Casablanca Court tried the human rights defender following a complaint
filed by then Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi in relation to an article which
described the manner of his coming to office as “a coup”.
The same year, Ali Anouzla, who was Managing Editor of the independent daily
Al-Jarida al-Oula at the time, was sentenced to a two-month suspended jail term
and a fine of 200,000 dirhams (approximately €17,900) for "defamation" and
"insulting the judiciary” alongside the paper's Publishing Director Jamal
Boudouma.
This sentence followed a series of repressive incidents and lawsuits against the
paper – including a fine of 160,000 dirhams (approximately €14,300) in a trial
which Ali Anouzla had not been given notice to attend – as a result of publishing a
news story reporting that a relative of the King had allegedly shot a traffic officer.