RABAT - A court in Morocco on Monday sentenced two journalists to suspended jail terms and fines for falsely reporting that the North African nation's King Mohammed VI was sick.
The editor of the daily Al Jarida Al Oula, Ali Anouzla, was handed a one year suspended jail term, while journalist Bouchra Eddou was also given a suspended sentence of three months.
The tribunal fined Anouzla 10,000 dirhams (876 euros, 1,315 dollars) and Eddou 5,000 dirhams.
The two journalists said they have lodged appeals, and accused the judiciary of trying to silence the press.
"I deserve to be acquitted," Anouzla said once the verdict had been read out, while his lawyer Abderramane Jamai, called the ruling "unacceptable."
"They want to silence journalists," Jamai said.
The trial began on September 29, a few weeks after Al Jarida Al Oula published an article saying that the king was too sick to participate in religious talks and visit Casablanca.
Anouzla and Eddou were accused of the "ill-intentioned publication of false information, allegations and falsehoods."
On August 26, the royal palace had announced that King Mohammed, 46, had been placed in convalescence for five days because of a viral infection that left "no concern about his health."
That statement was signed by Abdelaziz Maaouni, the king's personal physician.
Journalists in the north African country periodically find themselves in trouble with the courts for their handling of royal matters.
On October 15, the managing editor of the Arabic weekly Al Michaal, Idriss Chahtane, was sentenced to a year in jail, also for publishing disputed articles about the health of the king.
Chahtane has since been locked up in the Rabat-Sale prison.
Rachid Mhamid and Mustapha Hirane, two journalists from the same weekly, were each sentenced to three months in prison, but they are provisionally free pending their appeal.
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