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Chahid El Hafed, 09/03/2007, (SPS) Amnesty International
called on the Moroccan authorities to put an end to its systematic
human rights violations in Western Sahara in a public statement
published last Monday under the title "Morocco/Western Sahara: Stop
the judicial harassment of Saharawi human rights defenders".
Here is the complete text of the Public Statement:
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: MDE 29/003/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 024
5
February 2007
Morocco/Western Sahara: Stop the judicial harassment of Sahrawi
human rights defenders
On the eve of the trial in Laayoune of Sahrawi human rights
defenders Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai, Amnesty International fears
that the two men are being subjected to judicial harassment on
account of their work as human rights defenders and their advocacy
of the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.
Amnesty International calls on the Moroccan authorities to ensure
that tomorrow’s proceedings meet international standards for fair
trial. However, it believes the two men, who have been in detention
for over half a year, may be prisoners of conscience, in which case
they should be released immediately and unconditionally. The
organization’s concerns are made more acute by the fact that Brahim
Sabbar has already been sentenced in an earlier trial to two years’
imprisonment on the basis of charges which Amnesty International
believes were probably trumped up.
Brahim Sabbar, Secretary General of the Sahrawi Association of
Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan
State and well known to Amnesty International as a long-standing
human rights activist, along with his colleague Ahmed Sbai, face
charges which include belonging to an unauthorized association and
inciting violent protest activities against the Moroccan
administration of Western Sahara.
Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai appear to have been targeted for their
role in collecting and disseminating information about human rights
violations in Western Sahara, as well as their public advocacy of
the right of the people of the territory to self-determination. They
were arrested on 17 June 2006 at a police checkpoint at the entrance
to Laayoune in Western Sahara, when returning by car from the nearby
town of Boujdour, where they say they had been supervising the
creation of a branch of their association. Shortly beforehand, in
May 2006, their association had published a 121-page report
detailing dozens of allegations of arbitrary arrest and torture or
ill-treatment committed by Moroccan security forces in previous
months.
Brahim Sabbar’s previous trial took place shortly after his arrest.
He was charged with assaulting and disobeying a police officer
during his arrest, but denied the accusation, maintaining that
police officers in fact kicked, slapped and insulted him. Other
Sahrawi human rights defenders have reported similar or more severe
ill-treatment during arrest or questioning. He was sentenced to two
years in prison on 27 June 2006. In the same trial, two brothers,
Ahmed and Saleh Haddi, who had been travelling with Brahim Sabbar
and Ahmed Sbai at the time of their arrest were convicted on similar
charges and handed down a three-year prison sentence and a one-year
suspended prison sentence respectively. The decisions were confirmed
on appeal on 20 July 2006.
Amnesty International had a number of concerns about the fairness of
the trial. In particular, it was concerned about the court’s
dismissal of defence lawyers’ requests to call and question
witnesses, despite this being a cornerstone of the right of defence.
Furthermore, Brahim Sabbar said that he was never allowed to read
and check the accuracy of the record of the police interview with
him, in breach of Moroccan law.
Finally, Amnesty International appeals to the Moroccan authorities’
to stop criminalizing the peaceful work of Sahrawi human rights
defenders and to protect the right of all Sahrawis to peacefully
express their views, including on the issue of Western Sahara,
without fear of reprisal.
BACKGROUND
●
Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai
Brahim Sabbar has been subjected to persecution by the Moroccan
authorities on a number of occasions over the last quarter of a
century. He was arrested in 1981 at the age of 22 and held without
charge or trial in secret detention centres until his released in
1991. The Moroccan authorities have never provided a formal reason
for his arrest and enforced disappearance, but it is believed that
he was targeted for peacefully demanding the right of the people of
Western Sahara to self-determination.
In 2001 Brahim Sabbar was among 36 Moroccan and Sahrawi human rights
defenders sentenced to three months in prison for “participating in
the organization of an unauthorized demonstration” in Rabat, the
Moroccan capital, on 9 December 2000. The rally had been called to
demand an end to impunity for perpetrators of human rights abuses in
the country. He and the others were acquitted on appeal. For more
information, please see the report Morocco / Western Sahara: Freedom
of assembly on trial (AI Index: MDE 29/011/2001): http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE290112001?open&of=ENG-MAR
In the year preceding his arrest in June 2006 he was arrested,
detained for questioning and released shortly afterwards on three
separate occasions in relation to his human rights work or his
involvement in demonstrations against the Moroccan administration of
Western Sahara. He has been denied a passport since 2000.
Ahmed Sbai was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2003 for offences
including destruction of public property. The conviction was based
largely on a “confession” which he said that he was forced to sign
during an interrogation session in which he was tortured by being
whipped with a leather belt. He was released following a royal
pardon in 2004.
Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai, along with other Sahrawi detainees in
the Civil Prison of Laayoune, have reportedly been on hunger strike
since 30 January 2007 to protest against abuses to which they say
they were subjected on 19 January 2007. According to relatives and
friends, dozens of riot police were called in by the prison
administration as a punitive measure and proceeded to attack them
with batons and confiscate some of their personal belongings,
including books and blankets. Brahim Sabbar’s family say, in
addition, that the prison administration has ordered him to be
denied family visits for a month.
●
Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations
Committed by the Moroccan State
The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations
Committed by the Moroccan State monitors and documents current
allegations of human rights violations by the Moroccan authorities,
as well as demanding justice for Sahrawis who were subjected to
enforced disappearance in previous decades, like Brahim Sabbar, and
for the families of those who remain disappeared. However, Brahim
Sabbar, Ahmed Sbai and their colleagues have been unable to register
their association due to politically motivated administrative
obstacles.
This concern was highlighted recently by a mission of the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which visited Western
Sahara in May 2006. Its leaked confidential report concluded that
the Association had been “effectively prevented from registering
[itself] with the authorities”, noting that “[a]ccording to members
of the Association, the relevant authorities have repeatedly refused
to accept their file and to issue a receipt, thus paralyzing the
administrative process.”
The Association has been challenging the refusal for some two years.
In the latest development, on 21 September 2006 an administrative
court overturned the decision of the local authorities in Laayoune
to refuse to issue the Association with a receipt. However,
officials of the Moroccan Interior Ministry told the UN mission that
it would refuse to authorize any association “if it aims to question
the territorial integrity of Morocco”, an apparent reference to the
views of members of such Sahrawi associations in favour of the
independence of Western Sahara.
●
Other Sahrawi human rights defenders
Sahrawi human rights defenders have been the subject of a concerted
campaign of repression at the hands of the Moroccan authorities over
the last year and a half.
At least eight Sahrawi human rights defenders, including Brahim
Sabbar’s colleague, Brahim Dahane, President of the Sahrawi
Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by
the Moroccan State, were imprisoned in 2005 for involvement in
protests against the Moroccan administration of Western Sahara,
although they were later released following royal pardons in March
and April 2006.
Like Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai, they appeared to have been
targeted because of their work as human rights defenders and their
advocacy of the right to self-determination for the people of
Western Sahara. The Moroccan authorities have denied this and stated
that they were all imprisoned for their involvement in criminal
acts, not for their views. Amnesty International had serious
concerns about the fairness of their trials, such as the fact that
some of the evidence was tainted with unexamined claims of torture
or other ill-treatment and that the defendants were not permitted to
call defence witnesses. For more information, please see the public
statement Morocco / Western Sahara: Sahrawi human rights defender on
trial (AI Index: MDE 29/007/2006):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE290072006?open&of=ENG-MAR
Most recently, Ennaâma Asfari, Co-President of the Committee for the
Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Western Sahara, based in
France, was sentenced to a two-month suspended prison term on 15
January 2007 for “insulting behaviour towards a public official” and
“destruction of state property”. He has lodged an appeal and is
currently at liberty awaiting its examination by the court. Amnesty
International is concerned that the charges against him may have
been trumped up.
Ennaâma Asfari was arrested on 5 January 2007 and detained until 12
January, after security force personnel at a checkpoint outside
Smara, Western Sahara, stopped the vehicle in which he was
travelling with his family and refused him entry to the town. He
says that he accompanied the personnel to their roadside post and
demanded to know the reasons for the refusal, but was given no
justification and, when he insisted, was accused of damaging a table
and chair at the post. He had been subject to harassment during
other recent visits to Western Sahara.
The human rights situation in Western Sahara in general remains of
serious concern. The UN delegation which visited there in May 2006
underlined, in particular, that Sahrawi people were severely
restricted from exercising their rights to express their views,
create associations and hold assemblies, as well as being denied
their right to self-determination.” (SPS)
060/090/100 090156 MAR 07 SPS
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