Madrid (Spain), 9 April 2016 (SPS) - The General Council of the Spanish Lawyers Association has protested against arrest and expulsion, by Moroccan authorities on Thursday, of eight international human rights observers, including five Spaniards.
The association, in a statement, has called on Moroccan government to allow "human rights observers to fulfill their mission and to ensure prisoners' right to a fair trial."
It noted that those lawyers went to Morocco to enquire about the legal situation of 13 convicts from the Gdeim Izik group.
The Saharawi prisoners, the association added, took part in protests at Gdeim Izik camp, near Al-Ayun, in 2010, to claim Western Sahara people's right to self-determination.
They have been arrested, prosecuted and "have received sentences ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment."
Amnesty International and other international organizations have recently affirmed that those Saharawi prisoners have been illegally deprived of freedom."
For its part, the Free Lawyers Association of the Spanish city Saragossa has denounced the "illegal and unjustified" detention of the members of the international delegation of lawyers.
They also criticized the "permissiveness of Spanish government."
"This behaviour is very serious as it violates the basic right to defend suffering people," the Saragossa association stressed in a statement. (SPS)
062/090/700