Latest news with #Radi
Morocco World
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
Prison Authority Denies Omar Radi's Claims about Detention Conditions
Rabat – The General Delegation for Prison Administration (DGAPR) responded to the recent remarks made by journalist Omar Radi, who sharply criticized Moroccan prisons and his detention conditions in Ain Sebaa 1 and Tilfet 2 prisons. Radi made his remarks in a new interview published last week, claiming he was subject to alleged psychological and physical issues. DGAPT rejected Radi's 'baseless' claims, describing them as 'an allegation,' noting that Radi had personally requested to be put in a jingle cell, which they responded favorably to. DGAPR further stressed that the cell met hygiene and dignity standards, denying that he was subject to 'Excessive surveillance.' DGAPR said that the measures are standardized and apply to all detainees, particularly for phone communications and mail exchanges. In his interview, Radi claimed his cell at Tifelt 2 was infested with insects. ButDGAPR has strongly refuted the allegations, noting that the journalist's cell was regularly maintained and that the transfer was made at his own request. DGAPR also spoke of an incident that took place during Radi's imprisonment, recalling a time when he was fractured in his arm during an arm-wrestling match with a fellow inmate. The prison authority said the former prisoner received medical care and a surgery, and that his family was informed immediately and were allowed to visit him at the prison hospital. An investigation was launched into the altercation, DGAPR said, noting Radi also had access to the facility's scheduled activities and medication was provided to him, spending on medical prescriptions. In July 2021, a Moroccan court sentenced Omar Radi to a six-year prison sentence for 'rape' and 'receiving funds from a foreign agent.' Casablanca's Court of Appeal upheld the same sentence against the journalist in March 2020, but he was granted a royal pardon in July last year. DGAPR also condemned recent claims made by journalist Soulaiman Raissouni, who was recently released from prison on a royal pardon. In an interview with Spanish news agency El Independiente, Raissouni made strong remarks about Morocco's prison administration and judiciary, accusing them of 'unethical practices.' 'I knew what to expect: imprisonment and worse than prison,' the journalist claimed, alleging that his writing was confiscated during his time in detention. In response, DGAPR said Raissouni's comments on Moroccan prisons' 'unethical practices' are fabricated allegations that are part of what the prison authority described as continued attempts to 'tarnish the reputation of the prison and reintegration sector' in Morocco. Raissouni's allegations also seek to affect the reputation of Morocco's prison officials and staff, DGAPR said, denying his claims that he had a 'record-breaking' hunger strike. It stressed that it had previously issued a statement revealing that the journalist was consuming various food and dietary supplements during the period he claimed to be on a hunger strike. Tags: #Free Omar Radiomar radi
Boston Globe
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Nell Zink's new novel is full of talk but ultimately doesn't say much
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Radi presumes that both Nicole and Avianca are prostitutes and begins plying them with drinks in the hotel lounge, while Demian, forgoing any parental reaction to his daughter's situation, heads to the conference room with Toto and Livia for the award presentation. 'Sister Europe' makes clear early on that there will be no real consequences for anything that occurs, so the stakes are vanishingly low as the group progresses from the award's ceremony to dinner, which Radi and Nicole have in private, to a walk through the park and an implausible conclusion at Livia's home. Advertisement It's hard not to feel for Nicole, who wrestles with intense and unfamiliar feelings among these largely insensate and predatory adults. Though Radi, who deadnames and mocks Nicole while trying to sleep with her, is a privileged cad, Toto is the complete aggravating package, both bigoted and vacuous. He loves that German women don't 'have a word for 'one-night stand,' 'hookup,' or even 'mistake,'' because it's easier to have meaningless sex with the 20-something 'child brides' he fancies. He informs Demian that his daughter is 'not quite ready for prime time' but if Radi 'turns her gay, [his] nightmare would be over.' He asserts that 'Communists are the only people on the planet who care about literature,' drolly quips that 'beef is trans' because 'they castrate them and put estrogen in the feed,' and observes that 'before they got burger joints in Germany, it was No Fat Chicks country.' Related : Advertisement It's hard to pinpoint the novel's intended audience, though Zink, who grew up in Virginia before settling in Germany in 2000, seems to aim for both sides of the Atlantic as texted conversations in German are parenthetically translated to English and one of Livia's ex-husbands is described as 'pushing two meters at six foot six.' And while some of the group detours to Burger King at one point, most of the novel's touchstones are far more elevated, with shoutouts to 'Thorstein Veblen's concept of pecuniary respectability' and the closing sentence of Claude Lévi-Strauss's 'Tristes Tropique.' The narrative has baffling moments, as when we check in with the dog: 'Fisti, although barefoot, was almost entirely covered with hair, and no one present knew what he was feeling.' As the evening wears on, the prose overheats, reaching its apex perhaps when Radi feels 'an arrow of soon-to-be-attempted friendship launch toward Demian from the center of his heart.' Advertisement Characters in 'Sister Europe' express anti-Muslim and anti-trans sentiments, joke about refugees in tents, and have myopic discussions about everything from Ukraine to dating apps to Nazism. None of these issues are treated with any real perspicacity, which feels entirely realistic, and it's easy to imagine the novel being set in Washington, D.C., or London or any one of scores of other locations. But while fiction does not need to teach a lesson or even make a point, satire — which presumably this novel is aiming for — is more effective leavened with humor or drama, both of which are in short supply here. Perhaps Demian offers the best summation of 'Sister Europe' near its conclusion, when he says, 'The evening was beginning to assume mythical dimensions in his mind as one of the most irretrievably stupid nights of his life.' SISTER EUROPE By Nell Zink Knopf, 208 pages, $28 Advertisement Cory Oldweiler is a freelance writer.
