Berlin (Germany), July 8, 2026 (SPS) – The International League for Human Rights has called on the German government to urgently intervene to save the life of Sahrawi activist Naâma Asfari, who has been arbitrarily detained in Morocco's Kenitra prison since November 2010 and is currently on a hunger strike in protest against the conditions of his detention.
Naâma Asfari was sentenced to 30 years in prison because of his advocacy for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination and his participation in the Gdeim Izik protest camp, as one of the prisoners known collectively as the Gdeim Izik Group.
The German human rights organization stressed that, together with other human rights organizations and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, it considers Asfari's case to involve serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, prolonged solitary confinement, and reliance on confessions extracted under coercion.
The organization stated that Asfari's hunger strike is a protest against the continued "unlawful detention" of the Gdeim Izik prisoners, the systematic medical neglect they face, and the failure to implement the relevant international recommendations concerning their cases. It described the hunger strike as an alarm bell highlighting the international community's continued silence, despite the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention's 2023 recommendation calling for the immediate release of the Sahrawi political prisoners.
The League warned that the Sahrawi prisoner's health is deteriorating day by day and that his hunger strike now poses a genuine threat to his life. It therefore called for his immediate release, along with the other members of the Gdeim Izik Group.
The organization also urged the full implementation of the recommendations issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and called for an end to the ill-treatment and medical neglect of Sahrawi political prisoners.
The League further emphasized that the Sahrawi people possess an inalienable right to self-determination. It stated that the continued occupation of Western Sahara, the systematic human rights violations committed there, and their political normalization must not be accepted without objection. It appealed to the German Federal Government, the European Union, and the United Nations to uphold their responsibilities under international human rights law and international law by taking decisive action in support of the rights of the Sahrawi people and securing the release of Sahrawi political prisoners.
Finally, the organization stressed that a values-based foreign policy should be measured by its consistency in demanding compliance with international obligations, even where strategic and economic interests are at stake.
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