Arrested in Casablanca in January 2025 upon arriving by private jet at Mohammed V Airport, the French-Moroccan rapper Maes, whose real name is Walid Georgey, was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Tangier Criminal Court. The verdict was handed down on the night of Tuesday, November 25, to Wednesday, November 26. The Moroccan justice system holds him responsible for orchestrating, from abroad, a punitive operation related to a financial dispute. The artist, who was then residing in Dubai, allegedly planned the kidnapping and confinement of a man with whom he was in litigation over concert earnings.

According to the investigation, Maes allegedly contacted the suspected leader of a group in Fez to devise a plan to capture and torture the victim in Marrakech. The preparatory meeting reportedly took place in Tangier. The operation was thwarted at the last minute by the police as the alleged assailants were preparing to intercept their target as he got out of his vehicle. The investigation, conducted by the National Brigade of the Judicial Police, uncovered the central role of one of the perpetrators, the owner of a shisha café, who allegedly acted as an intermediary for traffickers and possessed photos of weapons and large quantities of hashish on his phone. The charges against the accused are particularly serious: attempted murder, kidnapping and false imprisonment, and forming a criminal gang.

This case comes as Maes was already facing a conviction in France. In June 2024, the rapper was sentenced to ten months in prison and a €10,000 fine, but never appeared in court. Simultaneously, an international arrest warrant had been issued for him, notably from Dubai, where he had settled with his family. His arrest at Mohammed V Airport marked the end of his time on the run.

🚨 ALERT! FRENCH RAPPER MAES HAS JUST BEEN SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS IN PRISON IN MOROCCO 🇲🇦 — FRENCHRAPUS 🇺🇸 (@FrenchRapUS) November 26, 2025

In court, he denied all the accusations. His defense argued that no direct evidence linked the artist to the other defendants, and particularly to Mourad L., considered the leader of the group.

Despite these protests, the court upheld the convictions. Mourad L. received a ten-year prison sentence, while Tarik L. was sentenced to seven years, and four other defendants to five years. Four defendants tried while free received a one-year suspended sentence and a fine of 1,000 dirhams.

Furthermore, in response to requests from the customs administration, the court decided to jointly and severally sentence three of the defendants, Mourad L., Abdelghani Ch., and Tarik L., to a fine of 23.6 million dirhams, or nearly 2.2 million euros, in financial damages. This penalty does not apply to Maes, but illustrates the economic scale of the case.

This conviction comes after a long downward spiral. In 2020, Maes was at the peak of his career, the third most-listened-to rapper in France and a popular figure among Moroccan youth. According to the investigative journalism program"L'Empire: au cœur du rap français" (The Empire: At the Heart of French Rap), everything changed in Sevran, Seine-Saint-Denis. Maes was allegedly the target of extortion attempts by individuals seeking to profit from his commercial success. After refusing to give in to the blackmail, he reportedly retaliated with weapons, triggering a shootout. Fearing reprisals, he chose to go into exile in Dubai. However, exile was not enough to protect him: his manager was murdered during a visit to France. This assassination could have been a trigger, but to date, no definitive public evidence confirms that Maes himself ordered reprisals.

In Morocco, his nationality prevents his extradition to France. He still has the possibility of appealing to the Court of Cassation, but given the seriousness of the acts and the level of responsibility attributed to him, the chances of a reduced sentence remain minimal.

From undisputed star of French-language rap to inmate in a Moroccan prison, Maes' career has been shattered by a case with complex criminal ramifications. A spectacular fall, the artistic, legal, and financial consequences of which are now irreversible.