Moroccan journalists face trial over security leak

RABAT, July 24 (Reuters) Two Moroccan journalists will go on trial this week over a leak of top secret intelligence information warning of imminent attacks by al Qaeda, a government official said today.

Al Watan Alaan (The Homeland Now), quoting a military intelligence document, reported in its July 14 edition that al Qaeda had decided to send 12 Arab and four Pakistani fighters to carry out attacks in Morocco and other Maghreb states.

Abderrahim Ariri, publisher of the Arabic-language weekly, and reporter Mustapaha Hourmatallah were taken in for questioning by police last Tuesday and have been charged with hiding things obtained through crime.

Hourmatallah will remain in detention until the trial in Casablanca on Thursday while Ariri was released but told to appear in person at the hearing, said the official, who did not want to be named.

Lawyers have said the journalists face up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

''It seems as if this is meant to be a warning to any journalist who might be inclined to investigate Morocco's ability to defend itself against terrorism,'' press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said last week.

The Maghreb region has been on alert since al Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa, the Algeria-based Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, threatened to escalate its war against ''corrupt'' regional rulers and their Western allies.

Morocco raised its security alert level to the highest rating of ''maximum'' early this month, suggesting an attack was imminent. The interior ministry said it had obtained recent intelligence information on a threat but gave no details.

Junior Interior Minister Fouad Ali el Himma said the information used by al Watan came from ''filched secret defence documents''.

Eight members of the armed forces also face trial in a military court over the case, charged with crimes related to the leak of documents and secrets concerning national security.

REUTERS CS PM0040