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
Migrants who swam or jumped over fences to rush into Spain's African enclave of Ceuta this week were returning home on Saturday, with many saying hunger, exhaustion and hostility from locals had crushed their hopes of a new life in Europe.
Spain said on Friday it had reversed a huge rush of migrants into a Spanish enclave in North Africa, with most of the more than 50,000 people who had crossed the border by land and sea already heading back voluntarily.
As 16-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El Abyad scrolled through Instagram videos showing migrants crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, he and his cousin, then still a 12-hour drive from the border, decided to try their luck.
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