Moroccan rapper Mehdi El Youbi has been arrested in Casablanca | Objections

Protesters say Moroccan authorities are intensifying their crackdown on dissent and the Gen Z protest movement.

Moroccan political activist, rapper, and filmmaker Mehdi El Youbi has been arrested in Casablanca, days after he was banned from returning to France, where he has lived since 2017.

El Youbi, better known by his nickname Mehdi Black Wind, was arrested on Monday night after being questioned by Morocco’s National Brigade of Judicial Police in Casablanca, according to a group of his friends and supporters.

“After a day of questioning, his family was informed at around 9pm that he had been arrested by the police and was due to appear before the public prosecutor on Wednesday,” he said. “According to the latest information, his arrest is believed to be related to his artistic views and writings on television.”

El Youbi, born in 1992, is well known in Morocco and North Africa for his rap songs that are heavily influenced by US hip-hop. He rose to fame in the early 2010s, around the same time Arab Springand songs that attracted the attention of government officials because of their words about politics.

“When I return home, I fear being arrested or banned from the country,” El Youbi he said French music magazine Mosaique Magazine in December 2025. “Many people try to remove art or sports, but I believe that every dedicated artist, every supporter, or anyone who risks his life between courage and fear.”

El Youbi is “the best rapper in North Africa and it’s not close”, Algerian journalist Maher Mezahi said on X.

Omar Radi, a Moroccan investigative journalist and human rights activist who was he was previously arrested in Morocco for criticizing a judgetold Al Jazeera that El Youbi is “an outspoken and politically correct Moroccan”.

“There is a deliberate attempt to eliminate any possibility of criticizing the government or the police’s methods, whether it’s by civilians and the media, or in professional circles or among football players,” Radi said.

El Youbi’s arrest comes a day after the arrest of Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet, who was condemned and the Committee to Protect Journalists, and two weeks later Zineb Kharroubi, leader of the protest group Gen Z 212, was given six months. suspended in prison after being found guilty of “encouraging the commission of offenses or offenses by electronic means”.

The agent El Youbi said that this shows “the great oppression associated with the Gen Z group”, referring to a youth-led protest movement that it came out last year Morocco needs better health care and education reform.

El Youbi is due to appear before a prosecutor on Wednesday morning. His supporters say they are worried that he will have to appear without a lawyer because lawyers in Morocco are on strike.