14 DAY TRIAL // The brief trial that sent Fouad Mourtada to jail after creating a Facebook profile and impersonating the Moroccan king's younger brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, drew a lot of attention to the African country and the "appalling" human rights conditions there. BBC and CNN both covered the story and caused quite a stir, swaying some 9,000 people to sign the petition for Mourtada's release.
The 26-year-old IT engineer told the judge, at his trial, that the profile he created was meant to be a joke and not to mislead or ridicule anyone. Lucky for him, Morocco is a reasonably liberal country, and a royal pardon came to free him after 43 days he spent in jail. The buzz caused around him by the media helped a lot, and the offense was not as grave as those of journalist and editor Ahmed Benchemsi, who faces up to five years behind bars over an article he wrote on one of the king's speeches, or Islamist leader Nadia Yassine, facing trial for openly saying that she is in favor of Morocco becoming a republic.
The history of the Royal family shows that all those insulting it have been dealt with pretty roughly, that's why the Royal pardon came as a surprise. Even YouTube was banned in Morocco last year for a brief period, after some videos hosted there were found to be in support of Western Saharan independence.
Some doubts over the way the authorities managed to get to Mourtada in the first place have surfaced, and among them the question whether Facebook cooperated. There are limited other options, should that not be the case, and not really appealing. Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch asked the social network about it when the whole situation was created, but he reported that a specific answer was not given.