Amnesty: Brahim Sabbar ‘may be a prisoner of conscience’

23/10/2006 | Newsletter

Amnesty International
The Wire
November 2006 vol.36 #10
Prison sentence for human rights defender

Sahrawi human rights defender Brahim Sabbar has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and faces additional prison terms in an upcoming trial. AI believes he may be a prisoner of conscience.

Brahim Sabbar, Secretary-General of the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State, is well known to AI as a long-standing human rights activist. He and his colleague, Ahmed Sbai, were arrested on 17 June at a police checkpoint at the entrance to the city of Laayoune in Western Sahara, after returning from the nearby town of Boujdour, where they were reportedly supervising the creation of a branch of
their association.

Brahim Sabbar was sentenced to two years in prison on 27 June for assaulting and disobeying a police officer. An appeal court confirmed the decision on 20 July. AI is concerned that the conviction appears to have been based exclusively on the record of a police interview with him. He says he was never allowed to read and check the accuracy of the record, in breach of Moroccan law. He denies the accusation and maintains that the police officers kicked and slapped him on arrest.

Brahim Sabbar, along with Ahmed Sbai, is now awaiting a separate trial on charges which include belonging to an unauthorized association and inciting violent protest activities against the Moroccan administration of Western Sahara.

Brahim Sabbar appears to have been targeted for his role in collecting and disseminating information about human rights violations in Western Sahara, as well as his public advocacy of self-determination for the people of the territory. In May 2006, his association published a 121-page report detailing dozens of allegations of arbitrary arrest and torture or ill-treatment in
recent months.

Please write, calling for the immediate release of Brahim Sabbar unless he is promptly tried on all charges in full conformity with international fair trial standards.

Send appeals to: His Excellency Driss Jettou,
Prime Minister, Département du Premier Ministre,
Palais Royal, Touarga, Rabat, Morocco.
Fax: +212 37 769995.