For the third time, Yasser Mounbir must appear on Wednesday, September 16, before the Criminal Court of First Instance in Casablanca. The two previous hearings were postponed.
Currently detained in Oukacha prison, the 22-year-old artist is being prosecuted for “insulting a constitutional institution and insulting a public official in the exercise of his duties.”
But for his support committee, “these accusations formulated in vague terms have already been used in other cases linked to freedom of expression”. In a petition published online, the “Free Yasser” collective believes that this artist, known for his committed graffiti which addresses social, political and human rights issues, was arrested “for his art” in mid-June. “His arrest is seen as a continuation of the criminalization of peaceful artistic expression,” we read in this document.
Drawings of Mohammed VI
“Summoned by the Casablanca judicial police, he allegedly had an altercation with a police officer, but this version is denied by those close to the young man,” specifies the newspaper Le Monde. he reports that Yasser Mounbir would actually be in the sights of justice because of his drawings of Mohammed VI published on his Instagram account followed by more than 12,000 subscribers.
“In recent months, the artist has published some of them on his Instagram account. We see the monarch made up, disguised or transformed into an animal. In another photo posted online, the sovereign appears kneeling with a landfill in the background,” specifies the daily.
The Moroccan penal code prohibits harming the king, his family or the monarchy. Those found guilty risk heavy prison sentences, often between two and five years, as well as fines. In 2023, the kingdom’s justice system sentenced Saïd Boukioud, an Internet user, to five years in prison for insulting the monarchy, after he criticized diplomatic normalization with Israel on Facebook.
Also readAttacks on freedom of expression in Morocco: “Condemned to silence?”
“An unfortunate trend of intimidation”
Yasser Mounbir’s support committee notes that his arrest is part of “a regrettable trend of intimidation and criminalization of freedom of expression in Morocco.” This turn of the screw concerns several artists. Le Monde thus recalls that the rapper Tarek Tazi, 31, by his stage name T-Flow, known for his texts denouncing the social divide, was sentenced, on September 11, to ten months in prison before the court of first instance of Fez for having published a video in which he criticized the policies of the government of Aziz Akhannouch.
“In June, still in Fez, the court of appeal sentenced the rapper Pause Flow (Jawad Asradi in civil status), 31, to a three-month suspended sentence for comments made about the police,” the French newspaper also adds.
Rapper Mehdi Black Wind is awaiting his trial which is due to take place on October 2 in Casablanca. He is also being prosecuted “for contempt of a constitutional institution”. Detained for two weeks this summer, he was able to benefit from provisional release and returned to France where he has lived since 2017.
Also readIn Morocco, supporters of rapper Mehdi Black Wind demand his release
Protesters hold signs and chant slogans in support of Moroccan rapper El Mehdi Lyoubi, known by the stage name Mehdi Black Wind, in front of the Aïn Sebaâ first instance court in Casablanca, July 22, 2026, as he appears there for a hearing. AFP – ABDEL MAJID BZIOUAT
Questioned by the site Médiapart, Mehdi Black Wind returned to his arrest and the intensification of the prosecution. “If the authorities are repressing more and more, it’s because things are moving, there is tension and people are trying things – even inside the institutions,” he explained. “What is recent is the relentlessness of the authorities on the web. Perhaps the authorities feel overwhelmed by this new generation, by their speed in reacting and mobilizing. This relationship with the virtual is used to repress freedom of expression and opinion, under the cover of contempt or defamation. It is paradoxical, when we know that there are populist media which have made defamation their editorial line. They, they don’t get arrested,” he also noted.
The rapper judges in any case that we “should never serve time in prison for songs, videos, opinions or content on the Internet”. Arguments shared by the Yasser Mounbir support committee which insists in its petition on the fact that “art is not a crime. The freedom to create is a fundamental right guaranteed by article 28 of the Moroccan Constitution”.
