Paris, Spt 6, 2012 (SPS)- French human rights activists call on Morocco’s King to intervene for the release of 22 Sahrawi prisoners of conscience, "arbitrarily" held in Salé prison for over a year and a half.
In an "urgent" call, these activists, members of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-France), underlined that these political prisoners, arrested following the dismantling of Gdeim Izik Camp (near the occupied city of Al-Ayun) on 8 November 2010, are prosecuted in the military court in Rabat, despite their civil status.
In their last bimonthly newsletter, a copy of which reached APS, the activists cited one of the prisoners’ lawyer, Bu Khaled, who said that Moroccan law do not offer them any possibility of appeal to contest the deferment of the trial, which was scheduled for last January, and the fact they are kept in prison.
"The detention of 22 Sahrawi activists could be qualified as arbitrary in the absence of an effective appeal," he said.
According to the accused testimonies to their lawyers," at least 13 of them were tortured, after being arrested at Al-Ayun gendarmerie station in the occupied territory of Western Sahara, and before being transferred to the prison of Salé." (SPS)
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