afrol News, 19 September - Moroccan appeals court has overturned conviction and dropped all charges against Mr Mohamed Erraji, a Moroccan blogger who was slapped with two year jail term for criticising the King.

Mr Erraji, 29 was convicted after writing in an online newspaper Hespress that kingdom had been destroyed by practice of handing out charity or gifts such as taxi licences to a lucky few, which encouraged people to beg.

"The case is not acceptable and the case was abandoned and thrown out of court," said Ahmed Belouch, presiding judge at the appeals court in southern city of Agadir.

Mr Erraji's had originally been sent to prison for two years, and given a fine of 5,000 dirhams ($635) for lacking respect due to the king.

Judge Belouch cited flaws in prosecuting the case of the blogger, including failure to summon him to attend trial 15 days before he actually appeared in court and his unlawful detention ahead of the trial.

However, as many international and local organisations have accused Moroccan justice system for not being free and fair, suspicion will be that outcry provoked by the case proved too embarrassing to Moroccan authorities.

"The ruling today showed the situation of human rights has changed in Morocco and there is improvement in court dealings with cases related to rights of opinion and free press," said Abdellatif Ouammou, who was Erraji lawyer.

Morocco has previously caused international outrage with its treatment of Internet users.

Earlier this year, Fouad Mortada was sentenced to three years in prison for creating a false profile on Internet site 'Facebook' using identity of King's brother.

However, he received a royal pardon following protests from other Internet users around the world.

Morocco's press code makes it an offence to show disrespect to King.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories