Moroccan YouTuber Sentenced to 3 Years for Defamation and Privacy Invasion

On Monday, the criminal chamber of the Casablanca Court of Appeal sentenced the Casablanca YouTuber Reda Bouzidi, known by the pseudonym "Oueld Chinwiya", to 3 years in prison, thus confirming the judgment handed down by the court of first instance of Aïn Sebaâ. During the hearing, the accused appeared before the prosecution in provisional release, and was accompanied by his family. He is being prosecuted for contempt of the judicial police, insults, defamation and invasion of privacy by disseminating accusations via computer systems. He is also accused of having caused disturbances in a police station and threatened to commit a crime.

Oueld Chinwiya’s legal troubles stem from the appearance of audio recordings attributed to him that would tend to show that he was involved in a "human trafficking" case. He had initially appeared at liberty, accompanied by his mother, his brothers and another woman. They are accused of defamation, invasion of privacy, insults, threats and disturbances in a public establishment. The criminal chamber of the court of first instance of Ain Sebaâ had acquitted them all.

Oueld Chinwiya had been arrested and then detained in the Oukacha prison (Casablanca), as well as a TikTok user known by the pseudonym "Bent Abbas". The latter had received two and a half years in prison.