Geneva, 17 October 2022 (SPS) - The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has warned about the state of health of the Saharawi journalist, Mohamed Lamin Haddi, unjustly sentenced to 25 years in prison, because of the abuse and torture he suffers by the Moroccan authorities.
Isolation, abuse, torture... This human rights defender incarcerated for nearly 12 years has endured terrible suffering at the hands of Moroccan authorities. In addition to the harsh treatment he regularly receives in prison, he has not seen his family since September 2018, OMCT reported.
He is only allowed to call his family sporadically and only recently has he been allowed to make a very brief phone call every week.
Mohamed Lamin Haddi was subjected to numerous abuses and torture in detention before he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2010. He was convicted of "violent acts" against the Moroccan authorities, "with the intent to kill". He denied the charges, saying his confession had been obtained under duress and that the evidence against him had been falsified.
This journalist, who has tirelessly defended the right to self-determination of his people in Western Sahara, was taken to the prison of "Tiflet 2", east of Rabat, at "the age of 20, full of energy and in good health. Today, he is not the same man", lamented the largest international coalition of NGOs working in the field of human rights.
"He can't see well in one eye. He has pain in his throat because he was hung by the neck. And he is weakened because of his hunger strike, often the only way for prisoners to protest their inhumane detention," it added.
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