On June 10, 2017, El Mortada Iamrachen was first arrested at his house in Al Hoceima based on two Facebook posts he published in December 2016 and June 2017. His father had a heart attack on the same day and died a few days later. He was temporarily released by order of the Rabat Appeal court on 22 June 2017 to attend his father's funeral. Police then re-arrested El Mortada Iamrachen in November 2017 after the Salé Court of First Instance sentenced him to five years in prison on charges including "advocating acts constituting terrorism offenses". The first Facebook post for which El Mortada was charged was a news report about the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey. The second post, in June 2017, included his account of a conversation in which a purported journalist had asked him whether he had tried to bring weapons to Morocco on the orders of al Qaeda and he had responded, sarcastically, that he had.