Moroccan 'Rancorous' Rapper Freed from Jail

Rapper Mouad Belghawat, a voice of Morocco's February 20 protest movement, was released from jail on Thursday after serving a four-month sentence for assaulting police.

The 26-year-old known as Lhaqed was freed from prison in Casablanca, the country's commercial capital.

"I'm very happy to see my family and friends again, and to be able to go back into the studio to make music," he said, reached by telephone.

Belghawat insists he is innocent and says he was assaulted by a policeman.

"I continue to believe in the appeals procedure, and I intend to prove my innocence," he added on Thursday.

His lawyer said a ruling on his appeal against the sentence was due on October 13.

Belghawat was arrested at a football match in May and accused of drunkenness in public, assaulting security agents and touting tickets on the black market.

Human Rights Watch warned of political motives behind the rapper's jailing and demanded that any appeals trial admit key evidence the judge rejected in convicting him on July 1.

The Casablanca court also ordered him to pay 15,000 dirhams ($1,720) to the two policemen he allegedly assaulted as well as a 500-dirham fine.

Lhaqed -- The Rancorous One in Arabic -- was convicted in March 2012 for the YouTube video of a song he wrote called "Dogs of the State," which denounced police corruption and was deemed an affront to Morocco's entire police force.

The video showed a policeman with the head of a donkey.

The musician was a public face of the February 20 movement in 2011 born out of the Arab Spring protests sweeping the region that year and demanding extensive reforms in Morocco.

He was awarded an "integrity" prize by Transparency Morocco while serving his earlier sentence, and released in March last year.