Fouad Mourtada is a Moroccan

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

who was sentenced by a

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

court to three years in prison for creating a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page of the

Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco, also known as Prince Moulay Rachid ben al-Hassan, ( ar, الأمير مولاي رشيد بن الحسن; born ) is a member of the Alawi dynasty. He was the youngest male child of the late King Hassan II and h ...

, the brother of King

Mohammed VI of Morocco Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II. Upon ascending to the throne, Moham ...

. He was convicted on February 23, 2008 of "villainous practices linked to the alleged theft" of the prince's identity. Fouad was initially sentenced to three years' incarceration plus a fine of 10,000

Dirhams The dirham, dirhem or dirhm ( ar, درهم) is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several Arab and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass. Unit of mass The dirham was a un ...

, but after a public outpouring of support he was pardoned after fewer than 45 days in prison.

Timeline

According to

Maghreb Arab Presse Maroc Agence Presse (known as MAP, french: Maroc Agence Presse) is the Moroccan state-owned official news agency. History and profile The agency was founded on 31 May 1959 by Mehdi Bennouna in Rabat. It was nationalized in 1973. The director ...

, "members of the royal family have neither web sites nor blogs, and the only official way to obtain information about them is through the portal of the Maghreb Arab Press Agency (MAP-national)". According t
Help Free Fouad
web site, one week after his disappearance and imprisonment by the Moroccan police on Tuesday, February 5, Fouad's family was able to visit him on Tuesday, February 12 afternoon at Oukacha jail in

, Morocco. Fouad had stated that he was embarked, blindfolded, interrogated, persecuted, beaten up, slapped, spat on, slammed for hours with a tool on the head and the legs until he lost consciousness several times and lost the notion of time. Concerning the Facebook account, Fouad indicated that he created the account (about the Prince) on January 15, 2008. It remained on line a few days before somebody closed it. In his defence, Fouad brings up the fact that there are many profiles of celebrities on Facebook and that there was no malicious intent on his part, that he admired the prince and that the profile was set up for fun. According to Fouad's lawyer, Ali Ammar, he could be facing 5 years of prison "for having done what thousands of people throughout the world do everyday: Create a profile of a celebrity or a star on Facebook". On February 19, a number of influential Moroccan blogs sites were 'on strike', protesting over the detention of Fouad. On February 23, Fouad Mourtada was sentenced to three years in jail for the alleged creation of the fake Facebook profile and fined 10,000 Dirhams. On the evening of March 18, 2008, Fouad was released by a royal pardon after spending 43 days in jail.

References

External links

Help Free FouadFree Fouad Mourtada on arabist.net
{{authority control Human rights abuses in Morocco Moroccan engineers Scandals in Morocco Moroccan prisoners and detainees Moroccan torture victims