SAHARA PRESS SERVICE

Geneva, 28/08/2004 (SPS) The International Secretariat of the International Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), called Morocco Thursday to start an investigation on the circumstances of the ill-treatment to which the young Saharawi, Mahmoud Moustafa Haddad, was subjected, exhorting Rabat to comply with "the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and international conventions and accords".

In a letter addressed Thursday to Moroccan King, Mohamed VI, the OMCT called Moroccan Government to "open a full and impartial investigation on the circumstances" of the ill-treatment to which the young Saharawi, Mahmoud Moustafa Haddad, was victim.

The organisation also called for "the immediate release" of the young man "who is detained without any judicial charges, so as he can be presented before of an independent and impartial civil court that will guarantee him all his rights to procedure".

Moreover, the International Secretariat of the OMCT expressed "its preoccupation about the situation Saharawi people are living as a whole, especially the situation of Saharawi prisoners in Moroccan jails and that of their relatives". It mentioned as example to this situation the cases of the assassination under torture by Moroccan occupying authorities of two Saharawi citizens: Chouihi Slimane and Bouceta Mohamed Barca, respectively assassinated last April 2004 and November 2002.

The organisation called Morocco to "guarantee the respect of Human Rights an fundamental freedoms of Saharawi population, conforming to the dispositions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and international conventions and accords Morocco signed", especially the minimum principles and norms on the treatment of prisoners.
 
The Association of Families of Saharawi Prisoners and Disappeareds (AFAPREDESA) and the Union of Sahrawi Jurists (UJS) expressed Wednesday their "deep preoccupation" about the human rights situation in occupied territories of Western Sahara, as a result to a verdict of 8 years imprisonment and 5.000 dirhams imposed on a Saharawi young man, Mahmud Mustafa Haddad, has indicated a joint communiqué of the two NGOs.

The NGOs denounced this ''new violation of human rights in occupied territories of Western Sahara", perpetrated in El Aaiun against this young man, who was tortured by Moroccan police and removed to the Carcel Negra (Black Jail) before been judged to a iniquitous trial Monday for having raised the flag of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) instead of a Moroccan one. (SPS)

020/090/000/TRD 281242 August 04 SPS