Moroccan news has recently been marked by what the press calls the OMAR RADI affair. To tell the truth, these are three cases and not one.
First case
On April 6, 2019 Omar Radi posted a tweet in which he evokes the following “LAHCEN TOLFI judge of the court of appeal executioner of our brothers (heard the prisoners of the Rif) let us remember him well in many regimes the small arms as he returned to beg after claiming to have executed orders, neither forgetting nor forgiveness with these officials without dignity ”.
These comments, which constitute contempt of the magistrate, an offense criminalized in accordance with article 263 of the Moroccan Penal Code, in this context were heard on the instruction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecuted on December 26, 2019 under arrest, he was granted provisional release on December 31, 2019. During all stages of the trial, he enjoyed all his rights as provided by law.
Benefiting from mitigating circumstances, he was only sentenced on March 17, 2020 to a four-month suspended sentence and a fine of 500 dirhams. He has appealed the verdict, which is scheduled for September 23, 2020.
Second and third cases
Since June 24, 2020, Omar Radi has been interviewed, in a state of freedom, eight times by the Judicial Police of Casablanca as part of a preliminary investigation ordered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. During this phase, he regularly published the summons given to him by the Judicial Police and also published 28 posts on social networks to present his biased version of the facts.
The same posts were used as part of a campaign of pressure on the Moroccan judicial authorities (forced into silence out of respect for the secrecy of the investigation) initiated by various national and international NGOs. Also, on July 15, 2020, he organized a press conference at the headquarters of the National Union of the Moroccan Press in Rabat, in the presence of his lawyer to present his biased version of the facts without any respect for the imperatives of the secrecy of the investigation. .
At the end of the investigation, he was presented on July 29, 2020 before the Attorney General of the King at the Casablanca Court of Appeal, assisted by several lawyers. This authority requested prosecution under arrest for the following charges:
– Indecent assault with violence and rape (following a rape complaint filed by his work colleague on the electronic site Le Desk.ma, where he assumes the responsibility of editor-in-chief of the investigations department);
– Receipt of foreign funds with the aim of undermining the internal security of the State and of carrying out contacts with agents of a foreign State to harm the diplomatic situation of Morocco (Omar Radi has maintained since 2013 with Dutch diplomats stationed in Rabat, responsible for monitoring the general situation in Morocco. This relationship was strengthened during the events in the town of Al-Hoceima in the north of the Kingdom. Omar Radi served as field agent for collecting information on the situation in the Rif for the benefit of Dutch diplomats. Likewise, Omar Radi has received money transfers from abroad, notably from the Al-Mayadine channel , controlled and financed by the Al-Quds Squadron, then led by Qassem Soulaymani, of the Iranian Pasdaran, the Lebanese Hizbollah, and the Bashar Al-Assad regime, led since its creation in 2011 by the Tunisian convert to Shiism Ghassane Benjeddou, former cabin member t of Houssein Fadlallah, Lebanese Shiite dignitary and religious reference. Ghassane Benjeddou is married to doctor Nidae Al-Housseini, niece of Mohamed Sadeq Al-Housseini, a member of the team of former Iranian President Khatami. Also, Nidae’s father is a former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who died during the Iranian-Iraqi war. Hizbollah has had recourse to naturalized Lebanese Spanish who evolved in Latin America to finance this support.)
– Tax evasion: The investigation with Omar Radi found that he knowingly failed to report his income, amounting to thousands of dollars, received from abroad for not paying income tax.
The investigating judge ordered that he be placed under a committal warrant at the nearest penitentiary establishment where his family and his defense group reside.