Moroccan Journalist Hamid Mahdaoui was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday for defaming Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi.
Mahdaoui, editor-in-chief of Badil.info and outspoken government critic, was handed a 1.5 million dirham ($150,000) fine by the Court of First Instance in Rabat.
Mahdaoui was sued after accusing Ouahbi of fraud and other allegations in a video on his website, which Ouahbi has denied.
The convicted Journalist was sentenced under the penal code, instead of the press code which does not include jail terms, said Khadija Riadi of the Moroccan human rights group AMDH.
In July 2020, Mahdaoui was liberated after serving a three-year sentence for allegedly withholding information regarding a threat to state security.
