Rabat (Morocco), May 15, 2012 (SPS) - Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday “the failure of Moroccan authorities to follow through on investigating the beating by police of a Human Rights Watch research assistant is a case study of impunity for police violence.”
“If there is impunity for police who beat up a citizen who works for an international organization in broad daylight, in front of witnesses and despite formal complaints, it’s clear how vulnerable ordinary citizens are,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“On November 8, 2010, Moroccan police in the city of El-Ayoun, Western Sahara, pulled aside Brahim Elansari and beat him in plain sight of an American journalist. In the 18 months since the beating, Moroccan authorities have provided neither Elansari nor Human Rights Watch with any information about the progress of any investigation, despite written requests from Human Rights Watch.”, highlighted statement of HRW.
“In the November 22, 2010 letter from Human Rights Watch, both Elansari and the journalist John Thorne, who was based in Rabat at the time for the Abu Dhabi-based daily The National, provided detailed accounts of the attack.”, it added
"a group of policemen surrounded Elansari on a downtown street and beat, slapped, kicked, and insulted him, calling him a “traitor” and a “separatist,”, according to HRW
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