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Pierre Galand calls on Belgian authorities to intervene with Morocco for release of Sahrawi prisoners

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Brussels, 11 April 2020 - President of the Belgian Support Committee for the Sahrawi people, Pierre Galand, has called on the authorities of his country to intervene with Morocco for the release of Sahrawi political prisoners,
Pierre Galand, also president of the European Conference of Support and Solidarity with the Sahrawi people (EUCOCO), in a letter sent Friday to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense of the Kingdom of Belgium, Philippe Goffin, called for the immediate release of the Sahrawi political prisoners jailed in Moroccan prisons.
"We ask you, Minister, to intercede with the Moroccan authorities to release the Saharawi prisoners without delay," said Mr. Galand in the letter.
He added that all governments of the world were fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic and recalled that “prisons are at high-risk places where they are seriously exposed to contamination”.
According to many NGOs, Sahrawi political prisoners are "victims of arbitrary and illegal detention and their conditions of detention in Moroccan prisons are worsening every day due to a high risk of infection with Covid-19 and ill-treatment to which they are subjected by the Moroccan prison authorities".
The President of EUCOCO reminded the Belgian Foreign Minister of the message of Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who declared that governments should immediately release all detainees without sufficient legal basis. (SPS)
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