By Redouane Benmehdi – Moroccan newspaper Akhbar al Yaoum shut down its operations after 14 years in business. Its closing, which left its staff and journalists stunned and concerned about their future, was announced on March 14, 2021 by its founder Taoufik Bouachrine. Bouachrine is currently serving a 15-year sentence in prison after a Moroccan court convicted him of alleged “human trafficking, abuse of power for sexual purposes, rape and attempted rape.”
Bouachrine wrote that the newspaper has been continuously “harassed” by the authorities, prompting advertisers to boycott the paper, most likely as a result of government pressure. Amnesty International has been pressuring Morocco to release Bouachrine, and a UN Human Rights Council working group insisting that Bouachrine was the victim of “arbitrary detention” and “judicial harassment”.
Al Jazeera reported that Bouachrine “has been critical of public figures, including billionaire Agriculture Minister Aziz Akhannouch and the North African kingdom’s ally, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.” It adds that “Asmae Moussaoui, Bouachrine’s wife, told the Guardian newspaper in June that slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi had warned her husband that his life was in danger in the months before his arrest. The UK-based paper also quoted her as saying that she believed Saudi Arabia told the Moroccan government to silence her husband.”
