He is 22 years old, and he could spend the next four years behind bars. Yasser Mounbir, a young Moroccan cartoonist, was sentenced on Friday, 30 October, by the Casablanca court of first instance over caricatures of King Mohammed VI posted on his Instagram account. His lawyer made the ruling public on Sunday.
The court found him guilty on two counts: “insulting the king” and “insulting public officials”. In addition to the prison sentence, he must pay a fine of 40,000 dirhams, around 3,600 euros. The young man had been held in custody since his arrest in June, shortly after his drawings went online.
The verdict rests on Article 179 of the Moroccan penal code. This provision punishes defamation, insults or invasion of the sovereign’s privacy with prison terms of six months to two years. Those penalties can, however, be doubled when the content is disseminated electronically, which explains the severity of the sentence handed down for social media posts.
The defence does not intend to leave it there. His lawyer, Farouk Mehdaoui, has announced plans to appeal. Following the ruling, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) demanded the cartoonist’s release.
The case goes beyond Yasser Mounbir himself. Human rights advocates are calling for the repeal of laws they say restrict freedom of expression, as well as pardons for people convicted over their online posts. As early as this summer, the “Free Yasser” collective launched a petition for his release, stressing that the young man had been arrested for his art. He is known for his politically engaged paintings and graffiti, which tackle social and political issues as well as human rights.
The appeal will show whether the courts uphold a sentence his supporters consider disproportionate. In the meantime, the case is reviving a long-standing debate in Morocco over where to draw the line between the protection owed to the king and creative freedom.