RABAT, Morocco (AP) Morocco arrested the editor of a local news website on Tuesday and said it would file a lawsuit against Spanish daily El Pais after both posted a video by North Africa's al-Qaida branch attacking the kingdom.
The 41-minute video, posted by the terror network last week, was a rare attack on Morocco and accused King Mohammed VI of corruption and despotism, and for being part of the war on terror that President George W. Bush launched. The video also featured the burning of a photo of the king.
"Following the diffusion by the electronic newspaper Lakome of a video attributed to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb which contained a clear call and incitation to commit acts of terrorism in Morocco, the prosecutor general has ordered police to arrest the owner of the newspaper for investigation," said the prosecutor's statement carried by the state news agency.
The Justice Ministry then followed up with a statement of its own later in the day saying that since El Pais' website carried the video in the original Arabic, "it shows it was addressed to Arabic speakers, particularly Moroccans, and so is an incitement to perpetrate acts of terrorism in Morocco." The statement added that it would file suit against the paper in a Spanish court.
In Morocco, Ali Anouzla's Lakome.com site is known for its trenchant criticism of the government similar to the secular Feb. 20 movement that protested for greater democracy in 2011 during the Arab Spring.