Kebdana Abdul Ghani

Taglabout Ali

Hassana Abba, 25 years old, was kidnapped Tuesday morning, Aug. 31, around 3:00 GMT. He was followed by intelligence agents since he repeated slogans in favor of self-determination of the Saharawi people after returning from a visit to Algiers and refugees camp June 7 with a group of activists.

According to him, after the kidnapping, the police returned his fingers backwards violently, and have stifled him and threatened him with rape after removing his pants.

Taglabout Ali, 24 years old other activist , was abducted at the same time by another police Moroccan patrol. He was on the street of El Ma’amoun in Ma’atalah headquarter, central city El Aain, when he was kidnapped.

He driven by force to outside of the city where he was interrogated and tortured.

According to him, Corporal Mohammed Al-Huson has ordered his agents to keep him quartered and kicked his head.

In response to his questions, the police said they followed the king’s orders.

At the behest of police to say « long live the king » Taglabout Ali said « long live the Polisario.

A former Saharawi political prisoner, Kebdana Abdul Ghani, was arrested at the same time, by a third patrol He was abducted by Moroccan police, taken to a car outside the city where he was tortured for his alleged responsibility of organizing a demonstration in support of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination..

The three activists have been released in the middle of the desert to 6am.

Carmen Roger

While the activists all are Spanish sang songs and slogans for the Sahara Libre, dozens of plainclothes police surrounded them, beat and kicked them before transferring to the headquarters of general information in the Prefecture of El-Aaiun, where they were interrogated.

After hours of interrogation, the Spanish have been delivered to the Casa Espana, then were returned Sunday night to the Canaries islands.

Police and intelligence services have increased in the first minutes of the event, and imposed a tight security cordon and prevented tens of Sahrawi citizens to join the Spaniards in the place of the event to support them.

Aziza Khatry

Salam Bouha Elmoudan

Police stormed the homes of Sahrawis citizens and injured a number of them, among them the two old women, Ms Aziza Khatry and Salam Bouha Elmoudan.

Earlier on Saturday morning around 2am gmt, four Sahrawi women were seriously injured when a Mercedes car driven by a Moroccan policeman employed in the fourth district of El-Aaiun – Western Sahara.

According to Ms. Aziza, one of the four injured, the officer was drunk, and police have not established official report on the incident, but only transferred the man aboard an official vehicle. Mrs Aziza accuses the Moroccan policeman to have deliberately acted for racist reasons

Zaina Ibrahim Bachir

Thursday, August 26 at 4.00 o’clock, two Saharawi elderly women were injured after an attack by the Moroccan forces of police.

Ms. Zaina Bashir Ibrahim, 75 years old sat in front of her house when ten elements of the Moroccan police, led by Corporal Rashidi Abdul Aali, in pursuit of Sahrawi demonstrators came quickly towards her, The corporal was then ordered her to enter her house.

So she obeyed, Corporal Rashidi Abdul Aali was kicking her, She enter her home and quickly closed the door. Police then stormed and tried to break the door.

Ms. Teghra Salem Bouzaid, 72 years old was attacked by the same group of policemen who tried to break the door of her house. Members of her family intervened to prevent this to happen.

Both women confirmed that police had arrested two Saharawi citizens protesting against this aggression and for which they are worried especially they were subject to an attack before they are transported on board a police vehicle.

According to sources close to security services, hundreds of police officers have been newly assigned to the Western Sahara.

It seems that these assignments correspond to the recent increase in acts of violence and arbitrary repression of the Moroccan police against the Sahrawi citizens and against their freedom of expression and opinion

El-Aiun Western Sahara
27.08.2010

According to Ahmed Salek Latrache, 20 years old, a Moroccan police patrol led by the Brigadier Abdul Ali Rashidi attacked him while he was walking along the boulevard and forced him to get into the patrol car.

During the trip, the Brigadier Abdul Ali Rashidi deliberately hit Mr. Latrache on the soles of his feet.

The interrogation, questions and strikes continued after his arrival in the prefecture. The questions focused on the reasons for his presence on ‘la viste’ Avenue.

Mr. Latrache said that the police interrogators beat him so badly that two clubs broke on his legs.

In a report drawn up by the police, Mr. Latrache was wrongly accused of possessing a knife. He signed the report because he was scared and hurt, he did not know what he will do. It was his first arrest

Mr. Latrache was presented before the prosecutor Tuesday, August 24, at 13.00 and was released after two questions about his identification: his name and the name of his father and mother.

Mr. Latrache informed us that the police of the prefecture stole his phone, his identity papers, his watch and his wallet.

El-Aiun Western Sahara
25.08.2010

The city has seen a strengthening of security measures in the hours before the arrival of five Sahrawi human rights activists returning from a visit to Algiers. The activists are Sultana Khaya, Brahim Sabbar, Neama Asfari, Hmad Hammad and Hamada Al-Ismaili.

Brahim Sabbar the secretary general of ASVDH said that Moroccan police have attacked them on their arrival at the family home of the activist Hmad Hammad where it was scheduled to celebrate their return. In the attack, Mexican journalist Antonio Velazquez was seriously injured. The police also hit the three Spanish observers Emma Pomar Lax, Pilar Almundera Fortuno Aguiran and Isabel Terraza, along with many other Sahrawi citizens.

In his part, the Sahrawi human rights activist Neama Alasfari, a member of the delegation, said that the Wali [Governor] of the Prefecture and the Pasha had personally supervised the police operation and given instructions for the intervention.

Sultana Khaya, who was wounded in her eye, said the police had intended to arrest her this was prevented by the support of the Sahrawi citizens attending the reception.

Meanwhile there were violent clashes in Smara Avenue between Moroccan police elements in uniform and in civilian and dozens of Sahrawi citizens demonstrating in protest against the ban on approaching the residence of the activist. Hammad Hammad
El-Aiun Western Sahara
23.08.2010

The plane that we were onboard landed at 20:00 at the airport of El-Aaiun, Western Sahara. We came from Casablanca after a flight from Algiers. The airport was filled with Intelligence agents and plainclothes officers.

They sped up arrival procedures for the rest of the passengers. Everything took very long for us.

They isolated us one by one, stripped and searched us, including our shoes. I bought new shoes in Algeria, and they were very interested. They asked me if Mohamed Abdelaziz (Translator note: President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) who bought them for me. Such were the questions that had no basis in reality.

We exited around 23:00 and found outside the airport the activists Brahim Sabar, Mohammed Rashid N’dour and Hassana Alouate. They took us in their cars to a reception area.

When we arrived, we showed the sign of victory. The police considered this as a provocation, and they attacked us. I was the first target, accompanying Mrs Khaddjto. She was hit in the head and fainted. I was beaten by seven people and I fainted too.

I woke up in the house, there were shouts and screams, and stones penetrated through the windows. The police threw them.

The tension was rising in the house when the rumor circulated that a policeman had been stabbed by a person in that house.

Around 03:00, I decided to go out along with Mohammed Manolo.

Just as I left the house, I was surrounded by a large number of plainclothes policemen. Four of them took pictures on me.

I was handcuffed and blindfolded with a cloth that smelled of urine.

Then they forced me to climb into a police car, not to mention they started hitting me, slapping, kicking, before taking me to the police prefecture.

I knew I was in the prefecture because I saw the ground and the stairs looking down under the cloth.

They took me to a room, and I felt there were many men before they started the interrogation.

They asked me whether I stabbed the policemen, who stabbed the policeman, and how the Polisario Front has paid to do that?

I was surprised by the questions that I found strange, so it was me who was beaten for no reason.

They threatened to force me to sit on a glass bottle, then they tied my hands over my shins.

They put a stick under my knees and bent me over my arms.

They hung me high up my head down (the police call it ‘roast chicken’). They struck me as they repeated the same questions: who stabbed the officer?

They said they had photographic evidence that it was me.

I told them that they if they had evidence they should show me.

Then they poured dirty water on me. It flowed to my mouth and my nose until I feel suffocated.

The situation lasted for two hours, I think. At this point, I said ‘stop, stop, I’ll tell the truth.’

A chief gave the order to change my position and they took me down to the ground.

I asked them to remove the blindfold of my eyes.

They did and I saw that there were twenty officers.

I pointed the finger at one among them and said ‘it’s him.’ ‘It was he who stabbed the policeman.’

They became angry, and they tied the blindfold on me and handcuffed my hands behind my back.

I stayed in this position from 06:00 until one in the afternoon. Every ten minutes the police beat me to prevent me from sleeping. I asked them for some water and food because I was hungry and thirsty.

They told me that there is no water, no food for the Polisario.

Then one of them came to join me in an office.

They wanted me to sign police report without reading it. I refused.

They removed the blindfold from my eyes. I read the report and I signed it because I agree with the way they wrote my statements. They made me sign it 17 times.

I was then accompanied by him to another room, under the same conditions as before. On the ground, handcuffed and blindfolded.

They released me and told me to leave around 21:00.

Morocco: Release or Try Sahrawi Activists Held 10 Months
Seven Facing Charges in Military Court After Visiting Tindouf Refugee Camps

(New York, August 1, 2010) – Moroccan authorities should release three well-known Sahrawi activists held since October 8, 2009 on charges of ‘harming state security,’ or provide them with a prompt and transparent trial, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch said that if Morocco insists on going forward with such a trial, it should be transferred from the military to a civilian court.

Ali Salem Tamek, Brahim Dahane and Ahmed Naciri are among seven Sahrawi activists whom Moroccan police arrested immediately upon their return from visiting Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Moroccan authorities provisionally have released the other four activists facing the same accusations, Degja Lachgar, Yahdih Etarrouzi, Rachid Sghaier, and Saleh Lebaihi.

Unlike previous low-profile, family visits by Sahrawis from the disputed, Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara to the refugee camps, this delegation openly met there with officials of the Polisario, the Sahrawi independence movement that runs a government-in-exile and administers the camps.

Ahmed Nassiri

Brahim Dahane

Ali Salem Tamek

During the activists’ two-week visit to Tindouf, some Moroccan political parties and newspapers, including the organ of the prime minister’s party, denounced the seven as ‘traitors.’ After their arrests, King Mohammed VI gave a speech indicating that Morocco would take a harder line toward Sahrawis who advocate self-determination for Western Sahara, which Morocco claims as part of its territory.

The case against the seven remains with the investigating judge at the Rabat military court, who has yet to complete the investigation and decide whether to refer the defendants to trial, and on what formal charges. The investigating judge has not questioned them since December. Under Moroccan law, pre-trial detention is limited to two months, but the court can renew the two-month period five times, for a maximum of one year.

According to a report issued on October 8 by the state news agency, Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP), the prosecutor ordered the seven arrested because of their meetings with “bodies opposing Morocco,” a probable reference to their meetings with Polisario Front officials, including president-in-exile Mohamed Abdelaziz. The police also reportedly questioned the defendants about meetings with Algerian officials.

The MAP report said the seven are under investigation on charges of ‘contacts with parties hostile to the kingdom,’ ‘undermining Morocco’s internal and external security,’ ‘undermining citizens’ loyalty to the kingdom’, ‘undermining Morocco’s diplomacy,’ and ‘receiving donations from hostile foreign parties for the purpose of organizing hostile demonstrations and sowing confusion.’

The investigating judge of the civilian court referred the case to military court because Morocco’s Code of Military Justice in Article 4 allows military trials for civilians when the charges include ‘undermining external state security.’ The case number is 2837/2546/09 before the first trial chamber of the military court in Rabat.

To date, Moroccan authorities have released no evidence to substantiate the accusations against the seven. Interviewed since their provisional release on May 18, Etarrouzi and Sghaier said their review of the case file apparently showed no evidence to substantiate the charges but, rather, consisted of contemporary broadcast and print media reports about the men being received by Polisario Front officials. The activists said in a statement on March 18, that their visit to Tindouf was ‘for humanitarian and purely human rights reasons.’ They have denied accepting money to fund or stir up unrest among Sahrawis in Morocco or Western Sahara.

‘The longer this case drags on the more obvious is the Moroccan government’s repression toward those who peacefully defy its position on Western Sahara,’ said Whitson.

The six men and one woman are all advocates of self-determination for Western Sahara, a vast disputed territory that Morocco has administered de facto since seizing control of it in 1975, after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew. The Polisario Front favors a popular vote on self-determination, including the option of full independence, while Morocco proposes a measure of autonomy for the region but rejects independence as an option. Morocco and the Polisario, which Algeria supports, have engaged in fitful and so-far fruitless negotiations.

Morocco considers peaceful advocacy of independence, or even of a referendum where independence is one option, as an attack on its ‘territorial integrity,’ punishable by law. Tamek, Dahane, Etarrouzi, Sghaier, and Naciri have all been previously imprisoned by Morocco – along with hundreds of other Sahrawis – for their pro-independence activities. Dahane and Lachgar are both former victims of forcible disappearance.

Moroccan authorities arrested the seven on October 8 at Casablanca’s Mohammed V airport, upon their return from the visit to the refugee camps. They spent eight days at the headquarters of the Judiciary Police in Casablanca, four of them blindfolded and handcuffed in individual cells, according to Sghaier and Etarrouzi.

The Moroccan authorities did not inform the detainees’ relatives of their arrest until the evening of 12 October, according to Sghaier and Etarrouzi, in contravention of Article 67 of the Moroccan Code of Criminal Procedure, which stipulates that the judicial police must notify the family of the suspects as soon as it decides to place them in pre-arraignment detention (garde à vue). The judge to whom they were presented on October 15 remanded them to Salé Prison.

On November 4, after the seven had been in detention for four weeks, King Mohammed VI gave a speech that signaled a hard line on Sahrawi activists, declaring:

‘Now is the time for all government authorities concerned to strive doubly hard, show great resolve and vigilance, enforce the law and deal vigorously with any infringement of the nation’s sovereignty, security, stability and public order….Let me clearly say there is no more room for ambiguity or deceit: either a person is Moroccan, or is not….One is either a patriot, or a traitor.…One cannot enjoy the rights and privileges of citizenship, only to abuse them and conspire with the enemies of the homeland…’

On January 28 Moroccan authorities provisionally released Lachgar, the only woman in the group, following reports that her health was poor. On March 18, the remaining six detainees started a hunger strike that lasted 41 days to protest their continuing detention without trial. On May 18, authorities provisionally released Etarrouzi and Lebeihi, both of El-Ayoun, and Sghaier, of Dakhla, but did not end the criminal investigation against them.

Tamek, Dahane, and Naciri remain in Salé Prison. All three are active in Sahrawi human rights organizations. Tamek, a resident of El Ayoun, is vice-president of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA). Dahane, of El-Ayoun, is president of the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations (ASVDH). Naciri is vice-president of the Smara-based Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. Moroccan authorities have refused to grant legal recognition to CODESA and the ASVDH.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Morocco in 1979, states that anyone detained on a criminal charge is entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. The Human Rights Committee, which interprets this treaty, has stated the right to a fair trial under article 14 of the Covenant means that military courts, should only exceptionally, if ever, try civilians. It has stated ‘[t]hat the State party must demonstrate, with regard to the specific class of individuals at issue, that the regular civilian courts are unable to undertake the trials, that other alternative forms of special or high-security civilian courts are inadequate to the task and that recourse to military courts is unavoidable. The State party must further demonstrate how military courts ensure the full protection of the rights of the accused pursuant to article 14 […].’ The committee has also noted that ‘Nor does the mere invocation of domestic legal provisions for the trial by military court of certain categories of serious offences constitute an argument under the Covenant in support of recourse to such tribunals.’ In Morocco, the verdict of a military court is not subject to appeal; the only available level of judicial review is the court of cassation.

‘If Morocco wants to prove these seven people did more than advocate self-determination and meet with Polisario, they should bring the case quickly to trial,’ said Whitson. ‘The prolonged detention of these men without charge is unjust and cruel.’

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Morocco, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/morocco/western-sahara

I arrived with my colleagues at the airport of El-Aaiun, Saturday, July 18, 2010 around 20.00 o’clock.

Things did not go as usual. Intelligence officers were deployed in the airport while authorities are delaying the luggage delivery procedures.

We were isolated in a separate room. We felt that as a provocation.

They extended the inspection procedures. There were many officers. We were searched thoroughly and even our shoes.

They released us an hour and a half later.

The French citizen Mr Mahmoud Masoudi remained at the airport even longer.

When we left the airport we found the human rights activist secretary general of the ASVDH Brahim Sabbar, Hassana Alouate and Mohamed Rachid N’dour. They took us with their cars to reception area. The ceremony was planned in the family home of Othman N’dour, a member of the delegation. There were many policemen in the streets along the route. They were even more outside the home of receipt.

We got out of car making the sign of victory. Orders were given to the police in civilian clothes approached us and then attacked the group. They hit hardest Mr. Hasan Dah and Mrs. Khadjatou Lma’adal, who was hit on the head and fainted.

I quickly brought Ms. Khaddjto Lmaadal in the house and tried to heal her. As Miss Mary Salek Boudjemaa was also injured, I tried to help her too.

The police constantly threw stones at the house. They came with a car full of stones as we saw before the house. They always do like this. There were very many.

Stones have crossed the living room window, one hit me in the mouth and made me fall down.
I lost consciousness for several minutes. It was a big stone.

When I woke up among the people of the house, I saw they used wooden tables to cover the windows.
I could not help them because I was bleeding a lot. One of my classmates gave me a turban to stop the bleeding.

He told me to relax and he brought me ice.

Then I went on the roof of the house where the reception was held. The activists of human rights took the floor in turn.

My friends asked me to speak, and the militant Sidi Med Dadach told me to come down and that is what I did.

At dinner, I could not eat. We have heard several times people screaming outside, but we do not know reasons.

We felt a great psychological pressure because of that. There were more rumors circulating in the house and claimed that a policeman was stabbed by one of those who were present. For that reason Moroccan authorities were going to storm the house to arrest the offender.

Then I decided to go out with Hassan Dah, Khada Bashir and Mohamed Ali Sidzine and leave the house.

Once we’re out, they detained, insulted and beat us.

The police took Mr Hassan Dah in one of the police cars.

During an hour and a half we were interrogated and beaten with slaps, kicks before we were released.

ASVDH
El Aaiun
July 21, 2010

I arrived in El-Aaiun, Sunday morning the 18 July in a taxi coming from Smara.

I wanted to come to the reception of the human rights activists’ delegation who were returning from a visit to the Saharawi refugee camps and Algeria.

I took a rest in my uncle’s house in the neighborhood of Al’Ina’ach.

Around 18.00 o’clock, I went into the house of Othman N’dour, a member of the delegation, where his family received supporters and sympathizers in a ceremony for the occasion.

When I arrived at the Boukraa avenue, I was surprised by dozens of police cars surrounding the house of the family of Mr N’dour.

There were also dozens of them in plain clothes, for the various Moroccan security agencies and intelligence.

As many of the Moroccan policemen were visibly aggressive, I decided to go into the house of a member of my family, not far from the place of reception.

An hour later we have heard screaming and we went out to see what was happening outside.

The police chased the Saharawi citizens in order to intimidate and discourage them from gathering outside the house.

I ran up until Boukraa avenue to wait and see the situation from afar. I was accompanied by dozens of Sahrawis awaiting the arrival of members of the delegation.

We were again surprised by patrols of plainclothes policemen who chased us all down in a car.

One of them punched me in the nose. I bled a lot and I fainted.

When I awoke, I looked for the person who struck me as to know why he did that.

He was with a group in civilian dress and uniformed, they insulted and kicked me, shouting words that I do not understand.

He left me lying on the road.

One of the Sahrawi citizens helped me and I walked into his house.

He treated me as he could.

Some Human Rights activists advised me to submit a complaint into the Attorney General of Moroccan king. I did not. Because I already made several complaints, but no responses.

Among the wounded women and men are:
Spanish nationals Lourina Loupez (student) et Jose Viciente (teacher)
Mohamed Manolo, Hayat Rguibi, Izana Amidan, Kelthom Lbsair, Mohamed Hali, Hasan Dah, Lmjaiad Sid Ahmed, El-Ghalia Hayouh, Fatma Braia, Chraifa Braiar, Zehra Rguibi, Khadjatou Mouloud, Daoudi Salam, Gajmoula Ismaili, Brahim Ismaili, Meriem Bourhimi, Abdellah Lkhfaouni

The delegation of activists arrived at the airport of El-Aaiun Sunday evening.

They were detained and searched for an hour and a half.

Mohamed Manolo

Moroccan police in the balance of power that it imposed, made use of insults and beatings with batons and other violence.

The police in civil cloths prevented by force, Mohamed Mayara and Sabbar Bani to enter the airport to receive the delegation. The tow activists are members of the executive office of ASVDH.

Upon the arrival of the delegation to the house which hosted the reception, the police intervened violently against members and their guests.

The secretary general of ASVDH, Mr Brahim Sabbar was insulted. Security guards had deliberately struck his car before he could evacuate the receiving area.

The Vice-Chair of the Sahrawi Committee to Defend the Right to Self-determination, Hammad Hammad, was attacked. His car was broken by the police who then filled the engine with sand.

This morning, the Moroccan authorities have arrested three members of the delegation, Mr.Hasan Dah, Sidi Sbaii and Othman Tnakha Sbaai, and the two Sahrawi citizens, Bahia Moussaoui and El-Mustapha Labras.

See more photos here