A court in Casablanca, Morocco, sentenced 22-year-old cartoonist Yasser Mounbir to four years in prison for insulting King Mohammed VI. As Der Spiegel reports, the court also imposed a fine on the artist equivalent to €3,600.
According to Mounbir’s lawyer, his client was found guilty of insulting the monarch. The defense lawyer said he would appeal the verdict. The cartoonist was detained in June after caricatures of King Mohammed VI were published on his Instagram page.
The Moroccan Human Rights Association called for Mounbir’s release. In Morocco, defamation, insult, or violation of the king’s privacy can be punishable by up to two years in prison. If the statement or image was distributed online, the punishment may be doubled.
Human rights groups criticizethese provisions as restrictions on freedom of speech and demand the repeal of the relevant provision of criminal law.
