“This case is about freedom of expression pure and simple,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle
East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Every day that Belghouat spends in
prison is a reminder of the distance between Morocco’s laws and practices and the rights
guaranteed in its new constitution.”
A Human Rights Watch observer attended the April 16 hearing, at which the court granted a
postponement of the trial at the request of the defense until April 25.
On July 1, 2011, Moroccans voted in a referendum to approve a constitution proposed by King
Mohammed VI that affirms freedom of expression. Article 25 states: “Freedom of thought,
opinion and expression in all its forms are guaranteed. Freedom to create, publish, and display
literary and artistic materials and scientific and technical research are guaranteed.”
The court is trying Belghouat for “showing contempt” toward “public servants in the exercise of
their duty,” with the intention of “undermining their honor,” under article 263 of the penal code,
and “showing contempt” toward state institutions, under article 265. If convicted, he could be
sentenced to up to two years in prison.
The “offending” material cited in the case file consists of a rap song Belghouat composed and
recorded, entitled “Kilab ed-Dowla” (Dogs of the State), and a YouTube video containing a
photo-montage set to the song. The song denounces police corruption with lines like, “You are
paid to protect the citizens, not to collect people’s money and take it to your chief.”
The case stems from a complaint filed by the General Directorate of National Security (Direction
Générale de la Sûreté Nationale, DGSN), the security agency that includes the judicial police,
among other police branches. The complaint, to back up the charges, refers to the photograph in
the video in which the policeman’s head has been replaced, with the aid of photo-editing
software, by a donkey’s head, and another snapshot of three policemen carrying a person,
perhaps a protester, by his limbs, as well as the lyrics that accuse the police of corruption and,
according to the complaint, refer to them as dogs.
In his statement to the police, Belghouat denied any connection to the video, saying unknown
people made it, set it to Belghouat’s music, and posted it. A separate recording of Belghouat
rapping “Kilab ed-Dowla,” but without any of the controversial visuals, is on YouTube.
Belghouat, 24, lives in the low-income Oukacha neighborhood of Casablanca. His rap songs
denouncing corruption, injustice, and the gap between royal opulence and poverty in Morocco
have won him attention as an artistic voice of the pro-reform “February 20 youth movement,”
which began in Morocco shortly after the start of protests in other Arab countries in early 2011.
Police have generally allowed the movement to hold protest rallies in cities around the country,
but have on several occasions intervened violently to disperse demonstrators. A number of
February 20 movement members are serving prison sentences after being convicted on charges
such as destroying public property and assaulting or showing contempt for police agents.
Belghouat attracted wide notice when police arrested him in an earlier case in September 2011
and charged him with beating a pro-government protester in a street altercation. His trial in