Morocco’s tourist industry targeted in campaign to free gay holidaymaker
Morocco’s tourist board has been targeted in a campaign to free a British holidaymaker jailed for ‘homosexual acts’ in the country.
Ray Cole, 69, and his Moroccan companion, Jamal Jam Wald Nass, were last week sentenced to four months in prison after being approached by police at a bus stop in Marakkech on September 18.
When police found a photograph of the two men together on their mobile phone, it was used in court as ‘proof’ of homosexual acts.
Homosexuality is a criminal offence in Morocco, alongside sexual relations outside marriage.
The family of Mr Cole, a retired magazine publisher from Deal in Kent, have begun a campaign to free him and are urging supporters to post comments on the Moroccan National Tourist Office Facebook page.
Campaigners have also been posting articles and comments about the imprisonment on Moroccan hotel and restaurant websites in a bid to financially hurt its tourist industry.
Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover and Deal, urged people not to visit Morocco in an interview with Pink News.
"I urge people not to visit Morocco. If you go there you are at serious risk of facing trumped up charges for medieval crimes," he said.
"The message is clear: Morocco is not safe for British tourists."
Comments already posted on the Moroccan National Tourist Office’s website include ‘Disgraceful treatment of tourists in Morocco. Avoid at all costs’, and ‘hmmmm….. jailing 70 year old men for being gay! not the kind of country I want to visit’.
An online petition has been set up and has already got nearly 1,000 signatures.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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