Journalists jailed in Morocco

A court in Morocco has jailed two leading journalists from an independent newspaper for defaming a government minister.

The two Aboubakr Jamai and Ali Amar who worked as editor and assistant-editor of the weekly paper, Le Journal, were given three and two month sentences respectively.

They were also fined one-hundred dollars, but ordered to pay the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Mohammed Benaissa, two-hundred-thousand dollars in damages.

In the article, published in 1999, they had alleged that Mr Benaissa was involved in embezzling Moroccan public funds while he was ambassador in Washington in the 1990s. Le Journal was closed last December accused of destabilising the state; it reopened in January as Le Nouveau Journal - the New Newspaper.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service