The decision by Morocco's king Mohammed VI to release a group of 33 people condemned for different crimes and offences, including seven journalists, was not made under foreign pressure, said on Thursday the Moroccan minister of Justice in an interview with the Qatar-based satellite TV Al-Jazeera.
Mohamed Bouzoubaa said the royal pardon was granted in response to requests made by the concerned people, their relatives or their friends.
Pardon "is an act of sovereignty that the King and all heads of state exercise willingly and it is up to them to choose the occasion to exercise it", said the Moroccan minister, adding that this initiative aims at "giving a new impetus to the Rule of Law and to the creation of proper conditions so that all citizens adhere to the democratic process."
The pardoned persons include those convicted in the murder in 1975 of Omar Benjelloun, one of the leaders of the then opposition, a group of persons prosecuted in 1994 in a case of arms trafficking between Morocco and Algeria, the group of Mohamed Chrii, a member of the Moroccan human rights association (AMDH), seven journalists who were detained or awaiting trial, among whom Ali Lamrabet, editor of two satirical magazines sentenced to three years in prison for "offence to the person of the king" and for "undermining the country's sacred institutions", and other people from the Moroccan southern provinces.
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
