Thread by @ibnkafka

There is a country, Morocco. It achieved independence from France in 1956. Until 1965 however, its judges were mostly French, ruled in French and laws were drafted & published in that language. Its penal code, still in force today, was drafted mostly by French jurists. #FreeHajar

Oh, I forgot. Morocco had no elected Parliament in 1962. Its first elected Parliament was voted into place first in 1963. Morocco's Penal code, whose bulk provisions remain in force to this day, were never debated let alone adopted by elected representatives. #FreeHajar

This is not to say that these provisions run against a groundswell of public opinion - they don't, despite vocal criticism from human rights defenders, feminists and secularists. It's just that these provisions were never subject to democratic scrutiny and debate. #FreeHajar

In that code, several provisions, left untouched since, prohibit inter alia and under pain of imprisonment non-marital sex, homosexual sex and adultery. Adultery was an offence under the French penal code then, the other two were not. #FreeHajar

Abortion was a crime under the 1962 Penal code. The provisions thereon were softened in 1967 with a proviso making abortion lawful, under certain conditions, if performed to safeguard the mother's health or life. #FreeHajar

It will not surprise close observers of human nature that Moroccans, married or unmarried, male or female, homosexual or heterosexual, have continued to have sex with varying degrees of obedience to the 1962 Penal code. #FreeHajar

That carelessness has been widely shared by Morocco's successive rulers, parliaments & governments, none of which deemed it useful to change even a dot in those provisions. No changes have even been proposed in Parliament or by government, to the best of my knowledge. #FreeHajar

It is always difficult to estimate the figures of the number of people in Morocco today violating legal provisions such as those ruling sexual conduct, buttressed as these are by widely held social, traditional and religious beliefs. #FreeHajar

Suffice it to say that even the most conservative estimate would put such a figure at considerably higher than the 60.000 prisoners currently held in Moroccan prisons for a wide variety of offences other than those we are discussing. #FreeHajar

According to some figures, 18.000 people have been prosecuted in 2018 for debauchery, i.e. sex between an unmarried couple. Even that figure is in all probability just a fraction of all offenders that year. #FreeHajar

Some could say this points to the inefficiency of Moroccan, generally a fair point to make. Others could underline the room for manoeuvre it gives a corrupt police force and judiciary, and their political master, the Palace. #FreeHajar

Few are the Moroccans who cannot tell or who haven't heard a personal tale of being shaken down by police, gendarmes, prosecutors or judges to avoid abusive prosecution or conviction under the Penal code's sexual provisions. #FreeHajar

Few are the Moroccans who remain unaware that these provisions can easily be abused and levelled against political dissidents or independent journalists. #FreeHajar

Enter Hajar Raissouni. She's a journalist for a Moroccan daily, Ahbar al Yaoum. Her uncle happens to be the ideologue of the PJD, Morocco's main party, whose Islamist outlook has made it the "bête noire" of Morocco's Palace-controlled establishment. #FreeHajar

Oh, by the way, Akhbar al Yaoum is close to the more critical wing of the PJD. Hajar had covered the #Hirak protest movement in the Rif region. She had a partner. He is Sudanese. They were to marry in mid-September. #FreeHajar

On September 2, Hajar & her partner were arrested. If we should lend credence to the authorities' version - and that's a big if - she was identified by chance during an undercover police operation against a clinic in Rabat, suspected of performing illegal abortions. #FreeHajar

Soon, news sites were publishing allegedly damning medical reports with appalling details of her gynecological status. These reports have been disputed by her defence. Police minutes have also been published, an unusual occurence. Medical staff has also been detained. #FreeHajar

Let us leave the details here. The simple truth of the matter is that Morocco's autocratic regime uses undemocratic and reactionary criminal provisions against journalists & dissidents, in the same breath as it portrays itself as liberal, modern and reformist. #FreeHajar

Liberalism, justice, modernity & tolerance are proclaimed in Morocco but not applied; like Scandinavian monarchs, they reign but do not govern. Morocco's reality is that of an autocratic, erratic regime living off the land & disposing of its inhabitants as of cattle. #FreeHajar

This is a regime that has literally thrown a woman's womb and personal life to the wolves to serve yet another one of its irrational, personal peeves. This a regime that does not let decency come in the way of its vendettas. #FreeHajar

Hajar Raissouni needs and deserves our support. She is a prisoner of conscience. Please spread the word, do not let the Moroccan regime get away with its gross indecency. #FreeHajar

And please do not forget the dozens of political prisoners jailed up to 20 (twenty!) years for their part in the peaceful political protest of the #Hirak movement in the Rif region. All independent- or critical-minded Moroccans are political prisoners under reprieve. #FreeHajar