Journalists Fined $9,000 For Blasphemy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
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.
