Algiers, July 23, 2017 (SPS) – Adviser at the presidency of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Lahritani Lahcen said Sunday in Algiers that the sentences issued by Sale Court in Rabat against 25 Sahrawi political detainees of Gdeim Izik Group are "strictly political and null" because they are not based on evidences.
During a meeting with the press in Algiers on the “unfair” sentences imposed to the Sahrawi political detainees of Gdeim Izik group, the adviser said that they are "strictly political sentences aiming at punishing the Sahrawis who defend the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination and unveil the Moroccan violations against the Sahrawi citizens, notably in the occupied city of Al-Ayun."
"The sentences have no legal weigh because they have been issued as part of a shame of trial marked with irregularities and are not based on evidence," he added.
The Court had refused to take delivery of documents, presented by the defence, revealing acts of torture committed by the Moroccan occupation forces against the Sahrawi detainees, "fearing the media and political repercussions of those documents which shed light on the Moroccan violations" against the Sahrawi activists, Lahritani Lahcen stressed.
"We will request from the UN Organization to respond to these unfair sentences … and make pressure on Morocco to bring it to comply to the decisions of the international law," affirmed the Sahrawi adviser, noting that the Sahrawi officials’ attachment to the creation of Human Rights Monitoring Mechanism in the occupied Sahrawi territories.
After a trial that lasted for 7 months, the Moroccan occupation forces had maintained Wednesday the same sentences issued by the Military Court against the Sahrawi detainees in 2013, including sentences of life imprisonment.
Governments, civil society organizations as well as human rights organizations and political parties have denounced the sentences issued "in defiance of the international law and the right of the detainees." (SPS)
062/090/APS