The outspoken artist was detained in mid-July for ‘insulting a constitutional establishment’.
Revealed On 1 Aug 2026
The politically outspoken Moroccan rapper and filmmaker Mehdi El Youbi has been granted a provisional launch from jail in Casablanca, Morocco, after being detained for 18 days.
A decide granted El Youbi’s request for provisional launch on Friday, in keeping with a press release from a gaggle of his supporters shared with Al Jazeera.
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“He is not going to return to Oukacha Jail, the place he had been held since 15 July. Whereas we’re extraordinarily pleased to know that he has been provisionally launched, we at the moment are ready for his subsequent listening to on 2 October 2026,” the assertion mentioned.
“As issues stand, Mehdi continues to be being prosecuted below Article 179 of the Moroccan Penal Code for ‘insulting a constitutional establishment.’ He nonetheless faces a sentence of six months to 2 years in jail, in addition to a advantageous of between 20,000 and 200,000 Moroccan dirhams [$2,150 to $21,500].”
Higher identified by his stage title, Mehdi Black Wind, El Youbi was arrested in Casablanca days after being barred from returning to France, the place he has been based mostly since 2017.
His arrest was believed to be linked to his inventive views and posts on social media, his supporters mentioned.
El Youbi rose to prominence in Morocco and throughout North Africa within the early 2010s, similtaneously the Arab Spring, with songs that caught the eye of authorities for his or her politically engaged lyrics.
Omar Radi, a Moroccan investigative journalist and human rights activist who was previously jailed for criticising a decide, earlier instructed Al Jazeera that El Youbi is “probably the most outspoken and politically direct Moroccan rapper”.
On the time of El Youbi’s arrest, a supporter mentioned the transfer mirrored the “intensified repression linked to the Gen Z motion”, referring to the youth-led protest movement that emerged last year in Morocco demanding higher well being companies and schooling reforms.
Within the group assertion shared with Al Jazeera, El Youbi’s supporters mentioned “600 folks” stay in detention since Autumn 2025. “Some sentences are so long as 15 years in jail.”
In October, the Moroccan Affiliation for Human Rights reported that 600 folks had been held for taking part within the protests.
El Youbi appeared earlier than a decide in Casablanca on Friday with no lawyer, as attorneys in Morocco are presently on strike, which involved his supporters. However they mentioned the “wave of help” that adopted his arrest, with rallies held in cities throughout Morocco, Europe and North America, helped in his momentary launch.
