Moroccan filmmaker and rapper El Mahdi Lyoubi, also known by his stage name Mehdi Black Wind, appeared before a Casablanca court on Wednesday, July 22 , on charges of insulting a constitutional institution, after ten days of detention in Oukacha prison. His arrest on July 13 sparked a wave of support that extended far beyond the kingdom's borders.
An arrest linked to the GenZ 212 movement, according to his relatives.
According to his support committee, the charges against the artist, who has lived in France since 2017, are directly linked to his support for the GenZ 212 movement, a collective of young Moroccans who denounce corruption, unemployment, and the state of public services. Human Rights Watch notes that this movement was behind demonstrations that were violently suppressed in 2025, resulting in three deaths and several hundred arrests.
Illia, a member of the support committee and close to the rapper, denounced to franceinfo an arbitrary arrest and a lack of transparency on the charges against him, mentioning more than a thousand protesters arrested in total, of whom nearly 600 are still imprisoned.
An opinion piece signed by prominent figures in French-language rap
A statement of support has been signed by several renowned artists, including Imhotep, composer for the group IAM, Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi, and French-Algerian rapper Fianso, who denounce the growing repression of artistic creation in Morocco. Rallies of support are planned in Casablanca, Marseille , Geneva, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brittany.
Emerging in the wake of the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, El Mahdi Lyoubi made a name for himself within the L'Bassline collective for committed lyrics denouncing social injustices, in line with a Moroccan rap scene historically marked by political criticism.
