This archive report was first published on 26 November 2019.
On November 25, 2019, a Moroccan court handed down a one-year prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 dirhams ($103) to rapper Mohamed Mounir, known as Gnawi, for insulting the police in a live social media feed.
Mounir, who was arrested on November 1, 2019, confessed to cursing the police in the live feed, stating he had been drunk at the time. He can still appeal the sentence.
According to Mounir, he had recorded the live feed because he felt he had been 'mistreated by police' earlier that day when they stopped him and checked his identity papers.
Police lawyer Abdelfattah Yatribi argued that the trial was not about freedom of expression, but rather a penal code matter.
Mounir's lawyer, Mohamed Sadkou, suggested that the authorities may have focused on the rapper because of a song he and two other singers had recorded that appeared to criticize the king.
The song, 'Aacha Chaab' - 'long live the people,' was released on YouTube on October 29, 2019, and gained 15 million views, with Mounir's lines focusing on social justice and corruption.
However, one of the other rappers included lines that accused the king of oppression and insulted his religious role in Morocco. The song and the other rappers were not mentioned during the trial.
Mounir's lawyers argued that he should have been tried under a separate set of laws governing the press and publishing that do not allow imprisonment.
Amnesty International issued a statement denouncing the verdict and urging Gnawi's immediate release.
