RABAT (AFP) — A Moroccan court on Thursday ordered a newspaper to stop publishing testimony given by victims of years of repression under late king Hassan II to a royal truth commission, a judicial source said.
The court found for Consultative Council for Human Rights (CCDH) president Ahmed Herzenni in his action against the daily Al Jarida Al Oula, headed by Ali Anouzla.
The witness accounts concerned were given to the now-dissolved Equity and Reconciliation Panel (IER). It was set up by Hassan II's son and successor, King Mohammed VI, to investigate murders, disappearances and other abuses between 1960 and 1999.
Much of the testimony gathered by the IER relating to the so-called "leaden years" was broadcast live on television or radio in public hearings held in December 2004. But the transcripts released in Anouzla's newspaper were not recorded for transmission.
The CCDH argued that a law protecting national archives for between 30 and 100 years covered the testimony involved, even if specific decrees concerning its application in this instance had yet to be issued.
The court said Thursday that Al Jarida Al Oula was liable to a fine of 1,000 dirhams (90 euros, 140 dollars) a day if it continued to publish the unreleased evidence.
Anouzla described the judgement as "nonsense and in conflict with the press code.
"The verdict shows that press freedom has moved backwards," he told AFP.
"It is in flagrant contradiction with the spirit of the IER because it takes away the possibility for citizens to be informed about the leaden years, while the IER wanted precisely the opposite to enable the page to be turned."
In a statement Herzanni said the CCDH had sought an end to the "publication of testimony which should constitute fertile material for serious researchers, instead of a tug-of-war between journalists chasing scoops."
He also criticised the "moral depravity" of certain journalists.
Anouzla's lawyer Abderrahim Jamai told the judge he reserved the right to sue the CCDH for Herenni's remarks.
The newspaper had published accounts given by a former advisor to Hassan II, Abdelhadi Boutaleb, and Khelli Henna Ould Errachid, the pro-Rabat president of the royal commission looking at autonomy proposals for the phosphate-rich disputed territory of Western Sahara.
Once the IER was wound up in November 2005, the CCDH -- set up by Hassan II in 1990 -- was charged by Mohammed VI with enacting its recommendations.
The IER had called on the state to apologise for the abuses and end impunity for those responsible.
It also said that the constitution should be changed to ensure a separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, following interviews with former political prisoners and relatives of those who died.
The 17-member independent IER panel dealt with 16,000 cases, of which more than 9,000 will be eligible for compensation, and resolved the fate of 593 missing persons.
It called for "the primacy of international human rights law over Moroccan law, the separation of powers, the total independence of the judiciary, the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial."
It also proposed a legal ban on "forced disappearances, arbitrary detention, genocide and other crimes against humanity, torture and all other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
Government spokesman and Communications Minister Khalid Naciri told AFP the court had acted "calmly and objectively."
"Only the IER is the judicial holder of this testimony," he said, adding, "the judgement puts matters straight concerning the need to handle the IER's archives in an orderly manner."
Naciri added, "we are in a free country, contrary to what the newspaper thinks."
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