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Vincent Padois, head tutor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University who teaches robotics and is babysitting the Paris ICub, makes a demonstration with ICub robot, a ?hybrid embodied cognitive system for a humanoid robot" about 1 metre (3.2 feet) high, at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris September 4, 2009. Six versions of ICub exist in laboratories across Europe, where scientists are painstakingly tweaking its electronic brain to make it capable of learning, just like a human child and hoping it will learn how to adapt its behaviour to changing circumstances, offering new insights into the development of human consciousness. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

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    Royal pardon frees Moroccan Facebook user

    RABAT
    Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:30pm EDT
    Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco addresses a cultural workshop on Mediterranean countries at the Elysee Palace in Paris, September 13, 2006. REUTERS/Mal Langsdon

    RABAT (Reuters) - A Moroccan computer engineer jailed last month for setting up a Facebook account in the name of King Mohammed's brother has been freed after a royal pardon, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

    Technology

    Fouad Mortada, 26, was jailed for three years and given a 10,000 dirham ($1,370) fine on February 23 for falsifying data and imitating Prince Moulay Rachid without his consent.

    The ruling sparked protests from free speech campaigners around the world and Moroccan bloggers stopped writing in solidarity with Mortada.

    His supporters said the Moroccan judiciary had failed to understand that thousands of people set up accounts on Facebook and other sites under the names of celebrities.

    Mortada argued he had set up the account because of his admiration for the prince and meant him no harm. He had appealed to the prince for clemency before being jailed.

    "Fouad's liberation is a victory for justice and freedom," said his lawyer Ali Ammar. "The king has done what the court should have done in the first place."

    (Reporting by Tom Pfeiffer and Zakia Abdennebi; Editing by Robert Woodward)
    Technology


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