Rabat (AFP)
A Moroccan youtubeur known in the kingdom was sentenced to four in prison on Thursday for "insulting the king" in a video posted on social networks, AFP learned from his lawyer.
Mohamed Sekkaki, known by the nickname "Moul Kaskita", was sentenced by the trial court of Settat (west) to four years in prison under article 179 of the Moroccan Penal Code, said his lawyer Mohamed Ziane .
This article provides for a penalty of up to four years in prison for "anyone who commits defamation, insult or offense against the person of the king or the person of the heir to the throne or a violation of the respect due to the king".
The youtubeur was arrested in early December after posting a video on his YouTube channel in which he insults the Moroccans and criticizes King Mohammed VI, whose person is "inviolable" according to the Constitution.
In this sequence of a dozen minutes, he attacks the monarch whose speeches are "followed by no result", while the Moroccans "suffer from clientelism and nepotism".
He also treats his compatriots as "donkeys" and "ignorants", who "see their rights violated without saying a word".
The prosecution indicated that it had initially received several complaints from associations. Mr. Sekkaki was thus initially prosecuted for "public insults against individuals", before a new charge for "offense to the king" was added to the file.
"The complainant NGOs withdrew their complaint and he was only convicted of the offense of offending the king," said Ziani, adding that his client was going to appeal.
The conviction of the youtubeur, whose videos generally exceed 100,000 views, comes less than a month after that of a Moroccan rapper, Gnawi, to a year in prison for "contempt of public official" in a video broadcast on social networks .
The Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) deplored in July an "escalation of violations of human rights and public and individual freedoms" in Morocco.
© 2019 AFP