Morocco jails royal Facebook role player
A information processing system engineer accused of sitting as a fellow member of the Moroccan royal house on the social networkinging Web site, Facebook, has existed sentenced to three years in prison house.
A judicature in Casablanca imposed the judgment of conviction on Fouad Mourtada, 26, on Friday, the province news authority said.
Mourtada was supercharged with thievery the personal identity of Prince Moulay Rachid, the young brother of the Moroccan male monarch, and of forging computer documents.
Attorneys for Mourtada, who stated he made the visibility as “a gag, a jape,” said they would appeal the conviction.
Since Mourtada’s taking into custody this calendar month, bloggers in Morocco and crossways Europe have beaten up behind him. At least seven fake profiles for the prince popped up on Facebook.
In a Web site that his home started, WWW.helpfouad.com, Mourtada is cited as expression the postdating to relatives who saw him in jail: “I never thought that by making a visibility of his Highness Prince Moulay Rachid I am harminging him in any way.
“I, as a thing of fact, did non send any message from that account to anyone. It was but a laugh, a joke. … I am non an evil worker; my ambition in the living was only to hold a stable job and a normal living.”
Facebook, like Myspace.com, is a social networkinging site that permits users to make personal profiles. They can then connect with one some other, upload pics and share golf links. The Web site boasts more than 60 000 000 active exploiters.
There are fake profiles abounding on Facebook, with oodles for U.S. President George W. Bush and a smattering for Mother Teresa.
In add to the prison house sentence, the tribunal fined Mourtada 10,000 Dirhams (USD 1,304), Mahgrib Arabe Presse reported.
King Mohammed VI and fellow members of his royal menage do non maintain Web sites or blogs, MAP emphasised. The only source of official info on the household is throughed the north African country’s intelligence agency, it told.