El Ayoun, November 10, 2022 (SPS) - The lawyers Francesca DORIA, Brigitte JEANNOT and Ingrid METTON, France WEYL and FIDH, with the support of the LPPS-League for the Protection of Saharawi Political Prisoners in Moroccan prisons, present six new complaints before the Committee Against Torture of the United Nations in Geneva for six Saharawi human rights defenders who are members of the "Group of political prisoners of Gdeim Izik".
The six applicants, Mohamed El Bachir BOUTANGUIZA, Abdellahi LAKHFAOUNI, Sidi Ahmed LEMJIYED, Ahmed SBAI, Abdullahi TOUBALI and El Houssein ZAOUI, ask the Committee to investigate the ill-treatment suffered as a result of their arrests, but also during their long imprisonment.
Detained in inhuman and degrading conditions for 12 years, they were definitively sentenced by the Rabat Court of Appeal in 2017, on the basis of confessions obtained under torture, to sentences ranging from 20 years in prison to life in prison. These conditions of detention have been denounced to the Committee, as the perpetrators suffer daily acts of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment: physical and psychological violence, solitary confinement, inability to reunite with their families, denial of access to medical care, denial of the right to move close to their families to Western Sahara...
Morocco must respect the decisions of the Committee against Torture and release the prisoners of Gdeim Izik
The Committee against Torture condemned, on several occasions, Morocco systematical refusals to abide by the Committee's decisions. Despite the threats and reprisals against them and their families, despite the intimidation of their supporters - associations and lawyers monitored with the help of Pegasus software - the applicants, relying on international institutions, continue to inform the United Nations of their inhuman situation. Morocco must respect the decisions of the Committee against Torture. Adherence to international conventions for the protection of human rights cannot be a simple communication operation of Morocco to whiten its image at the international level and must be followed by effects. All prisoners convicted on the basis of confessions obtained under torture and arbitrarily detained must be released and Morocco must guarantee their right to redress.
More than 12 years of torture and imprisonment after a peaceful protest
In October 2010, more than 20,000 Saharawi civilians, men, women and children, had gathered spontaneously and peacefully near El Ayoun, the capital of the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara, to denounce Moroccan social, economic and political oppression. The camp called "Freedom and Dignity of Gdeim Izik" was established for a month.
On November 8, 2010, Moroccan security forces violently dismantled the camp and arrested hundreds of peaceful protesters.
In March 2013, twenty-five Saharawi political activists and human rights defenders were tried and finally sentenced by the Military Court of the Royal Armed Forces to terms ranging from 20 years to life in prison on the basis of confessions obtained under torture. To date, 19 of them remain arbitrarily imprisoned.
In November 2016, the CAT condemned Morocco for having tortured Mr. Naâma ASFARI, spokesperson for the Camp. His wife, the human rights defender, Claude MANGIN and himself continue to be victims of reprisals that appear every year in the Report of the UN Secretary General, the last of them published in October 2022.
In 2022, the CAT condemned Morocco again for the acts of torture committed against two other members of the same Gdeim Izik group.
It should be remembered that in June 2022, four complaints were filed with the CAT by Saharawi authors, three members of the “Gdeim Izik” group and one member of the “El Ouali” group.
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