Bir-lehlu (Liberated Zones), 13 August 2017 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has drawn attention of the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to the gravity of the situation resulting from the Moroccan mock trial of Saharawi civilians known as the prisoners of Gdeim Izik group, and the unfair sentences issued against them, ranging from 20 years in prison to life imprisonment.
The President of the Republic indicated in a letter to the European official that these sentences were almost identical to those invalid sentences previously issued by a Moroccan military court Against these prisoners in 2013, in reference to the fact that the so-called civil trial was actually a blatant fallacy to cover up a reprisal by the Moroccan occupation authorities against the Sahrawi citizens demanding the implementation of the charter and resolutions of the United Nations, through enabling the Saharawi people to their right to self-determination and independence.
The President of the Republic considered the sentences a serious development in the record of the Moroccan occupation state, which is full of violations of human rights in Western Sahara, recalling that the Moroccan court completely ignored appeals of international organizations concerned with human rights as well as testimonies of the prisoners, lawyers and international observers.
The President of the Republic reiterated that the Moroccan occupying state, under international law and international humanitarian law, has no judicial authority over matters related to Western Sahara, as a different and separate country from the Kingdom of Morocco, as confirmed by the decision of the European Court of Justice of 26 December 2016.
The president also called on the European official to intervene to put an end to this unjust Moroccan colonial practice, which reflects the clear will to obstruct the UN efforts to resolve the Moroccan Sahara conflict. (SPS)
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