Moroccan Singer Dounia Batma Released After Serving One-Year Sentence

Dounia Batma is now a free woman. She has left the Oudaya prison in Marrakech after serving a one-year prison sentence in the "Hamza Mon Bb" case, it has been learned. A sentence handed down by the Marrakech Court of Appeal, which had increased the initial eight-month sentence. She had also been fined 10,000 dirhams. Her sister Ibtissam had been sentenced to one year in prison and a 10,000 dirham fine by the court of first instance. Stylist Aïcha had received a sentence of one and a half years in prison, while Sophia, the owner and manager of a company in Rabat, was sentenced to ten months in prison.

In January 2024, the judicial police brigade had arrested Dounia in an apartment on Boulevard Moulay Youssef in Casablanca, where she had taken refuge after learning of the execution of the judgment against her. She had then been taken to the Oudaya prison in Marrakech to serve her sentence. The singer had requested a royal pardon. Her lawyers had taken legal action in this direction, but the court had rejected the request.