Ali Lmrabet

Ali Lmrabet

"In May 2003, when he was editor of "Demain" magazine and "Douman", a Rabat court sentenced Lmrabet to four years in prison for "insulting the person of the king", "attacking Morocco's territorial integrity" and "attacking the monarchy". The following month, his sentence was reduced on appeal to three years in prison. Lmrabet was awarded the RSF-Fondation de France Prize on 10 December 2003. He and other imprisoned journalists received a royal pardon on 7 January 2004 (see IFEX alerts of 16 February and 8 January 2004, 3 December, 28 November, 23 and 17 October, 4 July, 18 and 10 June, 30 and 26 May 2003, and others)."

"In January 2004, King Mohammed VI pardoned all three journalists, along with editor Ali Lmrabet, of the satirical weeklies "Demain" and "Douman". Lmrabet's publications were banned and he was imprisoned in May 2003 for "insulting the king" and "challenging the territorial integrity of the state". After the pardon, Lmrabet left Morocco and his two weeklies never resumed publication."

"Several journalists from "Al Ahdate Al Maghribia" recently filed complaints against Ali Lmrabet, publication director of the weekly magazine "Demain". This follows "Demain"’s publication of a cartoon in May 2002 in which the author described "Al Ahdate Al Maghribia" as "pornographic." The satirical weekly "Douman" first hit newsstands in November 2002. It is the Arabic version of "Demain" magazine, and is also headed by Lmrabet."


 * "The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemned a Moroccan court's decision to ban independent journalist and former newspaper owner Ali Lmrabet from practicing journalism for ten years. The sentence came just ten days before Lmrabet was expected to receive a license to publish a satirical weekly, Demain Libere.


 * "From Madrid, Lmrabet told CPJ that the Court of First Instance in Rabat had found him guilty of defaming a pro-government group known as the Association of Relatives of Saharawi Victims of Repression and ordered him to pay 50,000 dirhams ($5825) in damages.


 * "The charges against him stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the Association of Relatives of Saharawi Victims of Repression in response to an article that Lmrabet had published in the Spanish daily El Mundo in November 2004. In the article, Lmrabet referred to the Saharawi people in the Algerian city of Tindouf as refugees, contradicting the Moroccan government's position that they were prisoners of the Polisario Front—a rebel movement fighting for the independence of the Western Sahara."


 * Winner of the 2003 Reporters Sans Frontieres-Fondation de France prize
 * Member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights