In addition to laws specifically criminalizing affronts to the king and his family, provisions of the penal and press codes stipulate prison terms for defaming any individual and for defaming and insulting state institutions. Mouad Belghouat, a rapper known as “al-Haqed,” served a one year term beginning in 2012, after a Casablanca court ruled that one of his songs and an accompanying photo montage posted online insulted the police. A popular newspaper columnist, Rachid Nini, spent a year in prison beginning in 2011, after a Casablanca court found that he had, through his writings, “insulted” public officials, under penal code article 263, one of the articles also used against Belghouat. The court convicted Nini of additional offenses linked to the content of his columns.Laws that criminalize offending, defaming, or insulting public officials and/or state institutions violate Morocco’s obligations under the international human rights treaties it has signed, Human Rights Watch said. The UN Human Rights Committee, in its authoritative interpretation of the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, stated in 2011: The mere fact that forms of expression are considered to be insulting to a public figure is not sufficient to justify the imposition of penalties… [A]ll public figures, including those exercising the highest political authority such as heads of state and government, are legitimately subject to criticism and political opposition… States parties should not prohibitcriticism of institutions, such as the army or the administration. “Haydour’s attack on the king may strike some as crass and disrespectful, but as long as he is in prison for it, no Moroccan enjoys the right to speak with complete freedom about the king,” Stork said.