Moroccan cartoonist Khalid Gueddar’s cartoon shows King Mohammed’s cousin, Prince Moulay Ismail, celebrating his wedding to a German woman. The government claims the cartoon is anti-Semitic for the way it portrays the Moroccan star as a Star of David. (Click to enlarge)
AFP is reporting that an appeals court in Casablanca upheld a four-year jail sentence for Akhbar Al Youm cartoonist Khalid Gueddar and editor Taoufiq Bouachrine.
Back in September, Gueddar drew a cartoon for Akhbar Al Youm that shows King Mohammed's cousin, Prince Moulay Ismail, celebrating his wedding to a German woman.
The Moroccan government claimed the cartoon was anti-Semitic for the way it portrayed the Moroccan star as a Star of David.
Bouachrine and Gueddar were ordered to pay three million dirhams (270,000 euros) in damages and interests to the prince, and the paper, shuttered since late September, was ordered to be closed indefinitely.
The Moroccan government has had a history of cracking down on journalists in the way they handle royal matters.
On Monday, an appeals court upheld suspended jail terms and fines handed down on two journalists at daily Al Jarida al Oula who had reported that the King Mohammed was sick.
The editor and two journalists from Arabic language weekly Al Michaal were also sentenced back in October for publishing articles about the king’s health.
“What is happening with the press is serious, very serious and it calls into question the future of democracy of our country,” wrote Ahmed Benchemsi in an editorial at his weekly French-language Telquel.
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