Moroccan journalist sentenced to jail over tweet

Moroccan journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi said Tuesday he had been handed a four-month suspended sentence for criticising a judge in a tweet. A court in the Casablanca district of Ain Sebaa also ordered Radi to pay a fine of 500 dirhams ($52), said the journalist, who reported the verdict in a tweet as courts in Morocco are closed to the public under measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"I had expected the trial to be scrapped. It is an attack on my freedom of expression," Radi told AFP, adding that he will appeal the verdict. The ruling was immediately criticised by Amnesty International, which urged Moroccan authorities to quash the sentence.