Shaheed El-Hafed, 16 July 2026 (SPS) – The International Network for the New Socialism of the 21st Century (Sovietern), has issued an urgent international appeal denouncing the “extremely critical” health condition of Sahrawi activist and political prisoner Naâma Asfari.
Currently detained at Kenitra Prison in Morocco, Asfari is reportedly on the verge of death after more than a month on hunger strike in protest against his detention conditions and ill-treatment, the organisation said in a statement.
It demanded his immediate and unconditional release in the face of the systematic denial of his fundamental human rights.
Sentenced to 30 years in prison and detained for more than 15 years alongside his fellow members of the Gdeim Izik Group, Naâma Asfari has become a symbol of peaceful Sahrawi resistance for self-determination.
Sovietern recalled that his conviction was based on confessions obtained under torture, a fact formally established by the UN Committee against Torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in its Opinion No. 23/2023, thereby depriving the verdict of any legal legitimacy.
In light of the Moroccan authorities' persistent refusal to allow access to independent medical care and family visits, the organisation held the occupying State fully responsible for Naâma Asfari's life and physical integrity.
Against this continued policy of repression against the Sahrawi people, the organisation called for immediate access for international human rights rapporteurs to detention centres in occupied Western Sahara.
Finally, the statement urged international bodies — particularly the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the Red Cross — to end their passivity and intervene urgently to save the life of Sahrawi political prisoner Naâma Asfari and his fellow prisoners.
