Western Saharan students receive one year sentence for falsified charges from court in Morocco
03/11/2009 | Newsletter
Dihani Abdellah
Toumi Baba Ali
Friday, October 30, the Morocccan court of first instance in Casablanca sentenced two Western Saharan research students, Dihani Abdellah and Toumi Baba Ali, to a year in prison.
The two Saharawi students were arrested on Wednesday (October 28) on-board a from Fes to Marrakesh, Morocco, when a staff member of the royal palace forced them to exit halfway at the station in Casablanca. There security members awaited them, accusing them of insulting sacred doctrines of the country.
After 24 hours, the charge was changed. Both students were charged with one count of assaulting a woman on board the train.
During the trial, which lasted no more than a quarter of an hour, the complainant was not present, nor witnesses.
The Moroccan court did not give the accused the opportunity to have a lawyer appointed in the context of judicial assistance.
ASVDH strongly condemns the unjust sentence pronounced against both students Dihan Abdellah Toumi Baba Ali, and denounces the campaign launched by the Moroccan state against Western Saharan activists and intellectuals, which has been escalating since the arrest of seven Sahrawi human rights defenders upon their return from a visit to the refugee camps in Tindouf.
El-Aiun, Western Sahara
02.11.2009
