prison

Moroccans gang together for the release of the "Facebook prisoner"

Julien — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:12:36 +0100

Fouad Mourtada got three years in a maximum security prison for creating a fake Facebook profile page for a member of the Moroccan royal family. Now, web-users all over the world are ganging together to get Fouad out of prison.

The 26-year-old Moroccan IT engineer created a profile in the name of Prince Moulay Rachid (the brother of Mohamed VI, king of Morocco). The offence led to his sudden street arrest on Feb 5. After weeks in custody, where his family says he was tortured, he went to trial in Casablanca. He explained that he created the fake profile in admiration for the prince, and with no malicious intentions. However, the court wanted to "make an example" of Mourtada, and they condemned him, at the end of February, to three years in a maximum security prison for the "usurpation of identity".

Since Mourtada was put behind bars outrage among the Moroccan public and on the international blogosphere has only escalated. Young people in particular cannot understand why a harmless joke led to such a severe sentence. Last Saturday demonstrators in Morocco and across Europe marched to demand the release of the Facebook prisoner.

What better than to spy on the guards that spy on you

Julien — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:01:14 +0100

Hu Jia films his jailers passing the time with a game of cards

Last month we publicised the case of blogger Hu Jia, arrested at his home on 27 December for openly criticising the organisation of the Olympic Games. Here we publish an extract from the documentary ‘Prisoners in Freedom City', that he and his wife Jeng filmed in the year before his arrest. This is the direct testimony of a Chinese dissident under 24h supervision by secret police.

It's time for a jailhouse rock

Julien — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:16:59 +0100

An amateur dance routine to the Michael Jackson song Thriller, staged by 1,500 Filipino prison inmates, has been viewed over 11 million times on YouTube. Part of a rehabilitation programme, the prisoners had been practicing several routines in the hope of participating in the colourful ‘Sinulog' festival that takes place on the island of Cebu each January. As well as the worldwide Jackson hit, they also drilled routines to the Village People's YMCA and Queen classic Radio Ga Ga. Sadly they weren't admitted to the Sinulog procession line-up, though a hundred of them were able to perform before a 230-strong audience on 18 January.

Hatched by security consultant Byron Garcia, the project was taken up by eight other Filipino prisons. Here; the videos of the routines, the live show with an audience, and the actual Sinulog Festival.