Former Sahrawi political prisoner arrested, member of ASVDH committee in Boujdour

19/07/2007 | Newsletter

El-Ayoune – Western Sahara

The Moroccan authorities arrested, the day before yesterday, Monday July 16, 2007, Mr. Mohamed TAHLIL, an ex-political prisoner and member of the Local Committee of ASVDH in Boujdour, who was travelling back from Mauritania, at the post control on the border Mauritania-Western Sahara, and was led to the police station in Dakhla, after having beaten him and cuffed his hands in public without any offence.

We recall that Mr. TAHLIL had been stopped Tuesday April 17, 2007, was detained at a check-point into El-Ayoune by a group of Moroccan policeman, among them, a Mr. AZIZ (called Touhima, a senior police officer) and Mr. ELKAMOURI (another senior police officer) before being expelled from the city on 18 of the same month. Mr. TAHLIL was also arrested on 13 August 2005, condemned to 3 years of prison. This sentence was confirmed in appeal on 25 January 2006; he was released on 22 April 2006. He was again arrested, tortured and abandoned in the desert, 50 kms far from the town of Boujdour, on 30 April 2006. On 11 August 2006, the Moroccan authorities in Boujdoour had refused to grant him his passport. On 11 October 2006, Mr. TAHLIL was arrested and questioned for 4 hours at the Mauritanian border at the time of his return from Nouadhibou; he was then arrested a second time at 40 km far from Dakhla. He was detained in the station police for 24 hours, and was insulted and beaten. His personal effects included a mobile phone and 2000 dirhams, which were confiscated.

ASVDH, which strongly denounces this arbitrary arrest and asserts the immediate release of Mr. TAHLIL, considers this illegal detention an infringement of the right of free movement, based solely on his political position and his activity as a defender of human rights.

In addition, the Sahrawi citizen Mrs. Aghleina Ment Barhah, arrested the day before yesterday, Monday July 16, 2007 at 21: 00 GMT, from her residence located at the Linaache district, in El-Ayoune, was released, today Wednesday July 18, 2007, at 13: 30 GMT, after having spent 41 hours under detention in the centre of judicial police.

Moreover, the lawsuit of the Sahrawi political prisoners, Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed BARKOUH, Mr. Mouloud Mohamed Ahmed BARKOUH and Mr. Khellihenna Sheik Ali DLEIMI, arrested in Smara, on June 26, 2007, have appeared, today July 18, 2007, before the court of first authority in El-Ayoune, was deferred to September 5, 2007.