Moroccan court upholds jail term for feminist over blasphemy

A gavel in court

Moroccan court on Monday upheld a 30-month prison sentence for feminist Ibtissame Lachgar over blasphemy charges, an AFP journalist at the court said.

Lachgar was arrested in August after sparking an uproar for posting online a picture of herself wearing a T-shirt with the word “Allah” in Arabic followed by “is lesbian”.

The 50-year-old clinical psychologist known for her rights activism in Morocco was initially sentenced last month to 30 months in prison and fined 50,000 dirhams (US$5,500).

Her defence team is set to appeal the sentence again before a higher court, said one of her laywers, Ghizlane Mamouni.

They will also submit a request to transform her sentence to an “alternate penalty”, she added. Under Moroccan law, such penalties could include house arrest or public service.

Lachgar’s lawyers had previously requested her release on medical grounds, saying she needed to receive treatment for cancer.

Lachgar needed “critical surgery on her left arm”, the lawyers said in August, adding that her doctors “warned of amputation if the surgery is not carried out”.

Human Rights Watch last month called on the North African kingdom to overturn Lachgar’s sentence, saying it was a “a huge blow to free speech”.

Lachgar’s post was accompanied by text saying Islam was “like any religious ideology... fascist, phallocratic and misogynistic”. It drew sharp backlash, with many calling for her arrest.

On Monday, she told a judge again that the message on her T-shirt was a feminist slogan that had nothing to do with Islam in particular.

The kingdom’s penal code carries a sentence of up to two years in prison for “anyone who offends the Islamic religion”.

That sentence can be raised to five years if the offence is committed in public, “including by electronic means”.

The prosecution on Monday requested the conviction be upheld and the sentence increased, saying Lachgar’s post was a threat to public order and the “spiritual wellbeing of Moroccans”.