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Morocco is called for immediate release of Sahrawi activist Mahfouda Bamba Lafkir

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Paris, 7 February 2020 (SPS) - The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has issued an urgent appeal to the Moroccan authorities to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the Sahrawi activist, Mahfouda Bamba Lafkir, imprisoned in Morocco, demanding her immediate release.
In a statement published Friday, the Observatory also asked the Moroccan occupation authorities to provide "medical care necessary to improve the health of the Sahrawi prisoner, who suffered a serious deterioration of her health due to the refusal of the prison administration to transfer her to hospital".
The observatory indicated that "the serious situation that Saharawi political activist Mahfouda Bamba Lafkir has been going through since her arrest on 15 November 2019, as part of her struggle for her right to self-determination, has worsened as a result of the difficult conditions in which she was arrested as well as the systematic refusal of the Moroccan occupation authorities to provide her with the necessary medical care".
"Given the gravity of the situation, the Observatory renewed its request to the Moroccan occupation authorities to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the Sahrawi activist, as well as to all human rights defenders in Occupied Western Sahara ".
"Ms. Mahfouda Bamba Lafkir, as well as all the Sahrawi defenders detained in Moroccan prisons, must be released," declared the Observatory.
It added that "Morocco must immediately open a thorough, independent, effective and impartial investigation into the ill-treatment to which she has been subjected, while identifying those responsible for these violations and bringing them to justice in accordance with international instruments for the protection human rights, in accordance with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, in particular its articles (1 and 2.12) ". (SPS)
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