Moroccan-American YouTuber Faces Trial for Alleged Insults to State Institutions

Arrested on February 6 upon his arrival in Rabat, Chafik Amrani was placed in the Oukacha prison in Casablanca. Pending the start of his trial, the judge in charge of the investigation has decided to grant an additional delay to allow the defense to prepare its pleadings.

Holder of American nationality, the famous YouTuber "3roubi fi merikan" was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the Moroccan authorities for the dissemination of videos that undermine national institutions. The resident of the state of Minnesota in the United States had anticipated his arrest in a video, broadcast during his stopover at Charleroi airport in Belgium. He had accused the "security apparatus" and called for "an end to political policing in Morocco".

"Following his arrest on Saturday, the man was placed in custody and his family, in the person of his brother, was informed of the date and reason for his arrest," the public prosecutor had said after the YouTuber’s arrest, who had been placed in custody in Casablanca after a brief stay in the capital.

Two months before Chafik Amrani’s arrest, the DGSN and the DGST had announced legal proceedings against any person residing abroad suspected of "insulting public officials in the exercise of their duties and against constituted bodies" and of "slanderous denunciation and fictitious crimes and dissemination of false and defamatory allegations".