Moroccan convicted of stealing royal prince's identity for Facebook profile

24/02/2008

In Morocco's first internet-related trial, a young engineer was convicted last week of posing as a royal prince while reportedly trying to meet women. Many Moroccan and foreign internet users leaped to the man's defence, calling the three-year prison sentence too severe.

By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 24/02/08

[Getty Images] Online networking community Facebook was the subject of a recent trial in Morocco in which 26-year-old Fouad Mourtada was sentenced to three years in prison for impersonating Prince Moulay Rachid.

A young engineer who masqueraded as Prince Moulay Rachid by creating a profile on the social networking website Facebook was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and fined 10,000 dirhams by a Casablanca court on Friday (February 22nd).

Fouad Mourtada was arrested on February 5th for assuming a false identity and committing Internet piracy. According to the bill of indictment and the police report, Mourtada did not use the Facebook profile to send any messages or commit fraudulent activities. The 26-year-old IT worker, who graduated from the Mohammedia School of Engineering in 2005, seems instead to have been motivated by a desire to attract young women, officials said.

Investigators found no evidence that Mourtada was linked to a terrorist group plotting to harm the royal family, according to his defence attorney Ali Amar. "My client did not commit any acts of fraud against anyone. This is the first time that a Moroccan has posed as an important public figure on an internet website, while in Europe and the United States this is a common practice", he contended.

Amar vowed at the end of the trial to lodge an appeal.

While some observers say Mourtada should not have interfered with the lives of the royal family even in this "virtual" way, a large number of Moroccan and foreign internet users have leaped to the defence of the young engineer.

Clotilde Le Coz, head of the Internet and Freedom section of Reporters Without Borders, expressed her astonishment at the disproportionate reaction of Moroccan authorities. "The Moroccan blogosphere is seen as being one of the most liberal in the Arab world. A case like this could change that image," she commented.

Medical student Nadia Zaatari said Moroccan investigators should not have been worried by the engineer’s actions, since false profile pages can easily be removed. "It’s clear that Fouad didn’t want to harm the image of the prince and the royal family. What’s more, there are numerous profiles of President Sarkozy of France and other political and arts figures on Facebook, but no one seems to care about those. He should be declared innocent. The sentence was too harsh," she argued.

This is the first Internet-related trial to take place in Morocco. Lawyer Mohamed Sellam told Magharebia that there is a large legal vacuum in this field. While the Penal Code contains a number of articles relating to the assumption of false identities, he said, none make any reference to the Internet.

The Press and Publications Code, however, lays down a prison term of between 3 and 5 years and a fine of 10,000-100,000 dirhams for "any offence to HM the King or royal princes or princesses." This article is supplemented by provisions of the Penal Code which call for up to 2 years in prison as well as a fine "for any offence caused to members of the royal family."