Moroccan authorities granted provisional release to rapper El Mahdi Lyoubi, known by his stage name Mehdi Black Wind, after three weeks in detention. He remains under prosecution for "offending state institutions," his lawyers told AFP.
El Mahdi Lyoubi © MNS
Moroccan authorities granted provisional release to rapper El Mahdi Lyoubi, known by his stage name Mehdi Black Wind, after three weeks in detention. He remains under prosecution for "offending state institutions," his lawyers told AFP.
The 34-year-old artist, also a filmmaker, is known in independent artistic circles for lyrics critical of Moroccan society and its inequalities.
At this stage, "no travel ban has been notified to him," said one of his Moroccan lawyers, Sara Soujar, though she noted it was "still too early" to say whether he would return to France. The next hearing in his trial is set for October 2.
Prosecutions of activists and internet users under the Penal Code have drawn criticism in recent years from human rights organizations, which are calling for authorities to rely instead on the Press Code, which has not included prison sentences since 2016.
By Badr Zayan
At 51, Binina Mohamed is as old as the conflict that drove her from the Western Sahara region into a refugee camp in southern Algeria, where she has spent her life among tens of thousands of others facing a similar fate.
The end of the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara after 35 years marks a turning point in one of Africa’s oldest conflicts. For Rabat, it is a major diplomatic victory.
The 35-year-old UN peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara region will come to an end after the Security Council failed to renew its mandate, the UN chief said on Sunday.
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