SOLIDARITY REQUEST: MOROCCO – Moroccan journalist arrested for abortion and sex outside marriage

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortio
Sept 10, 2019

Hajar Raissouni, a Moroccan journalist, age 28, was arrested by six undercover officers along with her fiancé leaving a gynaecologists’ office on 31 August after being accused of “sex outside marriage” and “consenting to have an abortion”, according to Amnesty MENA region. Other media reported she was accused of actually having had an “illegal abortion”, which both she and the doctor deny. The doctor and two of his staff, and anaesthetist and medical assistant who treated her, were also arrested. The doctor is accused of regularly providing abortion services and faces up to 10 years in prison. This has caused outraged across Moroccan media and social media, according to Figaro.

She has been held pending trial, which was set for 9 September 2019 in Rabat, but on that date the trial was postponed until 16 September. The major Arabic-language Akhbar Al-Yaoum for which she works published a medical consultation record proving the “absence of curettage”. She was treated for heavy bleeding, possibly a miscarriage, and not for an abortion, said Saad Sahli, her lawyer according to different reports. Her fiancé is a Sudanese academic, researcher and activist. One report says they had been married in a religious ceremony at her family home, and another that they were due to marry on 14 September.

Continued: https://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/solidarity-request-morocco-journalist-arrested-for-abortion/