A court in the Moroccan city of Temara on Monday sentenced Moroccan YouTuber Benesnes to eight months in prison and fined him 20,000 Moroccan dirhams ($2,200) over a viral video in which he skinned a dead dog during the recent Eid al-Adha holiday.
The Court of First Instance in Temara also dismissed civil claims filed by several civil society and animal protection organizations, limiting the ruling to the prison sentence and financial penalty.
The verdict follows several court hearings, the first of which was held on Sept. 8, during which the defendant was questioned.
The proceedings also coincided with an ongoing nationwide strike by Morocco’s bar associations protesting a draft law regulating the legal profession.
One of the organizations following the case, the National Organization for Electronic Protection, had asked the court to sentence the defendant to five years in prison and impose a 500,000-dirham ($55,000) fine.
Prosecutors charged Benesnes with insulting Islam, killing and mutilating an animal without necessity, threatening to commit crimes, public indecency, incitement to violence, and publishing digital content harmful to public order and public morals through his YouTube channel.
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