Rachid Niny, director of the Arabic-speaking independent daily "Al-Massae" was sentenced, on Tuesday, to pay a total of USD 800,000 record fine to four substitute public prosecutors in the northern city of Ksar El Kebir, in what is known as a "sexual pervert case".
The first instance court of Rabat also sentenced Rachid Niny to pay a USD 16,000 fine to the Moroccan Treasury.
(Without naming him, the report claimed that a judge has attended an alleged homosexual party in Ksar Al-Kébir, a small town in northern Morocco)
We are outraged by the exorbitant size of the damages award, the court ruling is inexplicable and unacceptable and reflected a desire to destroy the newspaper and restrict free expression in Morocco.

