A court in Morocco fined Al-Jazeera's Rabat bureau chief on Friday for spreading "false information" about police brutality, but stopped short of dishing out a jail term. The Qatar-based television network reported last month that a June 7 protest in the southern port of Sidi Ifni had resulted in "between one and five deaths" of locals at the hands of the security forces.
The toll was categorically denied by the Moroccan authorities and the Rabat court fined Rabat bureau chief Hassan Rachidi 50,000 dirhams (4,350 euros, 6,000 dollars) for airing the report, judicial sources said. Ibrahim Sebbaa El Layl, a human rights activist quoted in the report, was sentenced on Thursday to six months in prison.
"I am innocent in this affair," said Rachidi after the sentencing. His lawyer, Me Khalid Sefiani, said he planned to appeal. The Rabat authorities cancelled Rachidi's journalistic accreditation following the report on Al-Jazeera, and despite the station's insistence that it had acted properly in relaying the information.