Outrage over conviction of prominent journalist

A Moroccan journalist has been sentenced to a year in prison for having premarital sex and an abortion, in a case activists say is part of a crackdown on critical reporters. Hajar Raissouni was arrested with her fiancé as they left a gynaecologist's clinic in Rabat in August. The 28-year-old denied the charges, saying she had sought treatment for internal bleeding. BBC News reports that Raissouni works for the independent Akhbar Al-Yaoum newspaper which is critical of the authorities. ‘We're shocked by this verdict,’ her lawyer, Abdelmoula El Marouri, told Reuters, saying that all the medical and legal evidence should have led to an acquittal.