New York, April 2, 2013 (SPS) - Human Rights Watch published Monday, in its website, a report condemning the martial trial of 25 Saharawi political prisoners, known as Gdeim Izik group, calling on Moroccan authorities to grant them “a new and fair trial before a civilian court.”
“Morocco should free the convicted Sahrawis or grant them a new and fair trial before a civilian court,” stated the report, adding that the decision to try civilians before a military court “violated fundamental international norms for a fair trial.”
The Organization went on saying that the court “apparently admitted the defendants’ confessions as evidence without investigating the defendants’ contentions that the confessions were the product of torture.”
It therefore confirmed that the defendants said “they were innocent of all charges. Authorities should grant the defendants a new trial by a civilian court and provisionally release them unless it establishes valid grounds for pretrial detention.”
“The court’s written verdict does not detail the evidentiary basis for finding all of the defendants guilty. Since it mentions no other significant incriminating evidence, the verdict appears to rest on the defendants’ contested confessions to the police. The court rejected defense demands to investigate the defendants’ allegations that police had tortured them and forced them to sign statements they had not read,” underlined the report.
“In a new trial, the court should investigate the defendants’ allegations of torture and ensure, in compliance with international and Moroccan law, that no statement obtained through violence or coercion is admitted into evidence,” it added.
On other hand, Human Rights Watch recalled that the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment Mr. Juan Méndez stated, in n his report on Morocco published on February 28, that regarding Western Sahara he found: “torture and ill-treatment were used to extract confessions and that protesters were subjected to excessive use of force by Moroccan law-enforcement officials. The testimonies received indicate that members of the Sahrawi population are specifically, but not exclusively, victims of such violations.”
Based on all these facts, Human Rights Watch issued several recommendations calling on the relevant Moroccan authorities to “free or promptly retry the defendants before a civilian court,” indicating that ahead of retrials, the assumption “should be that all defendants will be at liberty until their trial.”
“When retrying the defendants, the court should examine their allegations of torture and ensure, in compliance with international and Moroccan law, that no statement obtained through violence or coercion is admitted into evidence,” it explained.
The Organization recommended that if the court decides to admit into evidence a police statement that the defendant claims was extracted under torture, it should explain in its written judgment why it decided the claims of torture or improper coercion were not credible.
“Lawmakers should carry out the recommendation of the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment in his February 28 report published on Morocco, to amend the code of criminal procedure to indicate that where there is an allegation of torture or ill treatment, the burden of proof lies on the prosecution to prove that any confession made has not been obtained by unlawful means,” the report said.
“While the loss of life at Gdeim Izik is deplorable, the prosecution failed to establish after 26 months of pretrial detention for most defendants a credible case that they were responsible for the violence,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Morocco’s judiciary undermined the credibility of its own trial by trying these civilian defendants in military courts, flouting international norms and denying them a full right to appeal,” added Ms. Whitson.
The Moroccan martial court in Rabat sentenced 9 of the group to life in prison. It also handed down sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years in prison, and 2 others to the two years they spent in pretrial detention.
They were arrested after Moroccan occupation forces violently attacked the peaceful protest camp of Gdeim Izik, near capital El Aaiun, on November 2010.
The trial has been condemned by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations and wide range of international organizations of human rights. (SPS)
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