The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network’s (EMHRN) observer at the trial of Sahrawi political prisoners in Rabat (Morocco) has worries about 24 Sahrawi political activists being hauled up before a military tribunal, the further delay of the trial, and the conditions in which the 24 accused are being held.
EMHRN representative Michael Ellman on an observer mission to Morocco on 22-24 October takes issue with the circumstances in which the trial of 24 Sahrawi prisoners being held without bail in Salé prison (near Rabat) since the Moroccan army’s forced evacuation of Gdaim Izik camp (Western Sahara) in November 2010 had been postponed yet again.
“I have to query the legitimacy of this trial. The information I have from Moroccan and international NGOs keeping tabs on the case of these activists is that none of the defendants are military personnel or stand charged with offences against the external security of the State. The big concern is that civilians can be tried in a military court”, reported Michael Ellman.
“Some defendants claim to have been tortured, and this is borne out by their relatives who have seen visible signs of ill-treatment. I would remind the Moroccan authorities that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture is on record as having heard of recent cases where torture had been used to extract confessions. But under international law, statements or confessions obtained under duress cannot be used in evidence”, he added.
The trial set down for 24 October has been put on hold for the second time without a hearing so far. Michael Ellman reported that he and other observers on the ground were told that the proceedings were stayed as the court had not had time to review the case of a 24th accused – El Bakai Laarbi – arrested on 9 September.
“I find it unconscionable that this case should be transferred to a military tribunal, which is not provided for in the Moroccan Constitution; that the accused should be held for two years in deplorable conditions; that their complaints of torture should not have been investigated; and that their trial should be postponed again under the pretext that within two months of Laarbi’s arrest the court has not had time to review the case”, concluded Ellman.
The so-called “Gdaim Izik Group” of 24 activists were accused of “criminal conspiracy to commit violence including murder against public authorities” and “desecration of a corpse”.
Since being locked up, they have gone on four hunger strikes to call public attention to the conditions of their imprisonment and their unfair trial outside the ordinary courts of law.