RABAT, MOROCCO - An Internet joker jailed for having created a fake Facebook page of the brother of King Mohammed VI, was freed after the king issued a pardon, his lawyer told AFP Wednesday.

Fouad Mourtada, a 27-year-old computer engineer, was released from a jail in Casablanca on Tuesday evening, said lawyer Ali Ammar.

Human rights groups had expressed outrage when on February 22, a court in Morocco sentenced him to three years in jail and fined him 10,000 dirhams (900 euros, 1,400 dollars) for "the use of false information and usurping the identity of the prince".

Mourtada, a computer programmer and a graduate of the prestigious Mohammedia Engineers School in Rabat, had set up a Facebook page in the name of Prince Moulay Rachid, the king's younger brother.

During his trial, Mourtada had insisted he meant no harm and said of Prince Moulay: "I admire him, I like him a lot and I have never caused him any wrong, it was just a joke. I am innocent."

Media rights campaigners Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the royal pardon in a statement on its website.

"Nevertheless," it added, "we regret that his liberation was due to a royal pardon and not a fair verdict."

On March 1, some 150 human rights activists and engineering students staged a protest against Mourtada's jailing outside his old school.

Last month, Amnesty International expressed its shock at the sentence, saying the sentence was disproportionate to the offence.

Benedicte Goderiaux, a member of an Amnesty group examining human rights issues in Morocco and Western Sahara who attended the trial, also expressed doubts about its fairness. --AFP