Omar Radi, a Moroccan government critic and rights activist has seen the Appeal Court in the country uphold his six-year sentence.
Radi, who has been accused of espionage and rape has always insisted on his innocence in the trail which has lasted two years now.
He said his fault is his demand for independent justice in a statement which was greeted with loud cheers in the court room.
“My only fault is to have demanded independent justice,” he said.
The 35-year old journalist is being accused of putting state security in danger with the Moroccan government accusing him of being financed by the country’s enemies.
He was initially sentenced in July 2021 but his trial began in 2020, a few days after Amnesty International accused the Moroccan government of putting a Pegasus spyware on the journalist’s phone.
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Tunisian journalist, Imad Stitou was also sentenced to one year imprisonment in the same case. He was accused of being Radi’s accomplice in the rape case. Stitou had since left Morocco for his home country, and was tried in absentia.
Public criticisms and jeers have greeted Radi’s sentencing as more journalists get punished for standing up to governments and critiquing their policies.