Taroudante – Abderrahmane El Mekraoui who made international headlines after posting a video on YouTube exposing a poorly constructed new road located in the town El Djema Sahim in the Safi region, has just been acquitted by the Court of First Instance of Safi, a coastal city in western Morocco.
The acquittal was announced on March 9. The court released El Mekraoui following the abandonment of the proceedings initiated on February 24 against him.
The complainant, who is the president of the municipality—home of the poorly constructed road that El Mekraoui exposed—also withdrew his complaint.
The young man was arrested and placed under custody in early February after he posted a video on YouTube on January 18 exposing the deplorable condition of a newly constructed road in his village near Safi.
Following his arrest, some Moroccans residing abroad organized sit-ins outside of Moroccan embassies around the world in solidarity with El Mekraoui.
To support the young man, some Moroccans posted videos on social media to denounce his arrest, calling for the Minister of Equipment and Transport to open an investigation into the case.
However, the minister said that the poorly constructed road that Abderrahmane exposed in his video belongs to the municipality and that the ministry didn’t take part in its construction, adding that the authorities responsible for opening an investigation in the incident are the Interior Ministry and the Regional Council of Accounts.
Social media users demanded that the young man be rewarded, instead of arrested, for exposing the poorly constructed road after the president of the municipality filed a lawsuit against him.
Now, the young man has regained his freedom after nearly a month in custody.
Edited by Kelsey Fish
