SCREENSHOT OF IBTISSAME LACHGAR'S X ACCOUNT

A Moroccan court rejected on Wednesday, August 27, a request to release on bail activist Ibtissame Lachgar, who faces trial over "offending Islam," despite concerns about her health, a defense lawyer said. Lachgar, a 50-year-old clinical psychologist, was arrested earlier this month after posting online in late July a picture of herself wearing a T-shirt with the word "Allah" in Arabic followed by "is lesbian."

Appearing on Wednesday before a judge for the first time, Lachgar seemed tired, wearing a medical brace on her left arm and smiling as she greeted supporters before the proceedings began at the courtroom in the capital Rabat, AFP agency reported. "She is being treated for cancer and is due to undergo critical surgery on her left arm in September," said Lachgar's lawyer Naima El Guellaf, who added her client's doctors have "warned of amputation if the surgery is not carried out." Mohamed Khattab, another lawyer in her defense team, also said his client's health was "critical."

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Moroccan feminist activist Ibtissame 'Betty' Lachgar faces prosecution for 'insulting Islam'