Journalists Fined $9,000 For Blasphemy

CASABLANCA, Morocco — The editor and a reporter from a Moroccan news weekly that published jokes relating to Islam were convicted and fined yesterday for insulting the religion, court officials said.

The court in Casablanca handed down three-year suspended sentences to Driss Ksikes, editor of Nichane, ("Straight Ahead"), and to journalist Sanaa al-Aji, court officials said. Both were barred from any journalistic activity for two months, and the independent Arabic-language magazine was suspended for two months. They were fined $9,280 each.

The sentence was milder than the three to five years in prison that prosecutors had requested.

Mr. Ksikes has repeatedly said the 10-page article was meant as a thoughtful examination of Moroccan popular humor.

"I don't regret what I wrote," Mr. Ksikes told reporters after the verdict, though he also said he was sorry to have offended some Moroccans.