Morocco's Facebook 'prince' given royal pardon

By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 2:53am GMT 20/03/2008

A Moroccan internet prankster jailed for pretending to be the brother of the king on the social networking site Facebook has been given a royal pardon.

Human rights groups had expressed outrage after Fouad Mourtada, a 27-year-old computer engineer, was sentenced by a court to three years in jail and fined 10,000 dinar (£650) for "the use of false information and usurping the identity" of Prince Mourlay Rachid.

Mourtada, a graduate of the prestigious Mohammedia Engineers School in Rabat, had insisted he had meant no harm by setting up a Facebook page purporting to belong to King Mohammed VI's younger brother.
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He said at his trial: "I admire him, I like him a lot and I have never caused him any wrong, it was just a joke. I am innocent."

His lawyer had pointed out that Facebook contained sites for President Sarkozy, George Bush and Tony Blair, as well as sport and film stars, without any proof that they were real.

Amnesty International, which condemned Mourtada's sentence as disproportionate to the offence, had been particularly worried by the judge's claim that he had "undermined the sacred integrity of the realm as represented by the prince".

His release from jail in Casablanca on Tuesday evening followed an international campaign for his release by human rights groups and ordinary internet users.

Reporters Without Borders, a media freedom campaign group, welcomed the royal pardon but added: "Nevertheless, we regret that his liberation was due to a royal pardon and not a fair verdict."

The case illustrates that whatever the internet's generally liberating effect on free speech elsewhere in the world, any sort of criticism or mockery of the royal family remains very risky in Morocco.

Ahmed Benchemsi, a Moroccan journalist, faces up to five years in jail over an article he wrote about one of the king's speeches.

In another official reprieve for another Facebook user, a computer engineering student in Canada learned he would not be expelled for running a study group on the site.

Ryerson University in Toronto decided that Chris Avenir, 18, had been charged with 146 counts of academic misconduct - one for each of the classmates who discussed their course work on his Facebook page.

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