Amnesty International Report 1996 - Morocco

MOROCCO AND WESTERN SAHARA

More than 60 prisoners of conscience were arrested during the year. Some were released without charge or given suspended prison sentences; others were sentenced to prison terms. Over 50 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience continued to serve long sentences imposed after unfair trials in previous years. Torture and ill-treatment continued to be reported. At least five people died in custody. Hundreds of Sahrawis and Moroccans who "disappeared" in previous years remained unaccounted for. Former Sahrawi and Moroccan "disappeared" prisoners who were released in 1991 continued to be subject to restrictions and some were rearrested. A former prisoner of conscience forcibly exiled in 1991 remained unable to return to Morocco. At least three people were sentenced to death and more than 40 others were reported to remain on death row. No executions were carried out.

The UN-sponsored referendum on the future of Western Sahara, originally scheduled for 1992 and postponed several times (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 to 1995), was again postponed, to 1996. Observers from the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) remained in place, but freedom of expression, association and movement in Western Sahara continued to be restricted.

Thirteen people, including four Algerian nationals, were arrested in September and October on charges of smuggling arms to Algeria. They were detained awaiting trial before the Military Court at the end of the year.

More than 60 prisoners of conscience were arrested during the year, often following peaceful demonstrations, labour strikes and sit-ins against unemployment. They included Khadija Ben‘ameur, a factory worker and a representative of the Union Marocaine du Travail, Moroccan Labour Union. She and 11 others were arrested in March in Sidi Slimane and Sidi Kacem and were sentenced to up to one year's imprisonment on charges which included participating in a concerted withdrawal of labour. The sentences were reduced on appeal to up to two months' imprisonment, suspended in some cases.

Members of the Association des Chômeurs Diplômés, Association of Unemployed Graduates, were again arrested for peaceful anti-unemployment protests (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Twenty-six of them, including two pregnant women, were arrested in August in El Jadida for participating in unauthorized demonstrations and gatherings and were sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The sentences were suspended on appeal in October and they were released.

Eight Sahrawi youths – Ahmed el-Kouri, Nebt Ramdane Bouchraya, ‘Arbi Brahim Baba, Cheykhatou Bouh, M'Rabih Rabou Neysan, ‘Abdelhay Lekhal, Mahfoud Brahim Dahou and Salama Ahmed Lembarki – were arrested in May following a peaceful pro-independence demonstration in Laayoune, Western Sahara. They were accused of participating in a demonstration in support of the Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el-Hamra y Rio de Oro, Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (known as the Polisario Front), carrying Polisario flags and leaflets, and chanting slogans calling for the independence of Western Sahara. They were sentenced by a military court in June to between 15 and 20 years' imprisonment on charges of threatening the external security and territorial integrity of Morocco. Their sentences were reduced to one year by royal pardon in July. They were prisoners of conscience. Scores of other prisoners of conscience were arrested in Western Sahara, sometimes after peaceful pro-independence demonstrations and gatherings. Many were released after weeks or months, but others were reportedly held incommunicado at the end of the year.

Prisoners of conscience were also imprisoned on charges of insulting the person of the King or the royal famwily. ‘Abdelkader Cheddoudi, a teacher, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in July on such charges, which he denied. He remained imprisoned pending appeal at the end of the year.

More than 50 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience imprisoned after unfair trials in previous years continued to be held. Among them were prisoners of conscience Ahmed Haou, ‘Abdelkader Sfiri, Mustapha Marjaoui and Youssef Cherkaoui-Rbati. They had been arrested in 1983 with other supporters of the unauthorized Islamist group al-Shabiba al-Islamiya (Islamic Youth) accused of putting up anti-monarchist posters, distributing leaflets and participating in demonstrations (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Prisoner of conscience ‘Abdessalem Yassine, the spiritual leader of the banned Islamist association al-‘Adl wa'l-Ihsan (Justice and Charity), remained under house arrest. He had been held without charge or trial since 1990 (see Amnesty International Report 1995).

Trials of individuals in political cases continued to violate international fair trial standards. Courts failed to investigate complaints of torture and ill-treatment during incommunicado detention, sometimes illegally prolonged for weeks, and confessions allegedly extracted under duress were accepted as evidence.

Many of those arrested, including dozens of prisoners of conscience, alleged that they were ill-treated or tortured at the time of arrest or during incommunicado detention. The authorities, however, failed to act on such complaints, and no investigations were known to have been carried out into complaints of torture and ill-treatment by members of the security forces during the year or in previous years (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 to 1995). Methods of torture included beatings, suspension in contorted positions for prolonged periods and electric shocks.

At least five people who died in custody were reported to have been beaten and ill-treated after arrest. Requests by families, lawyers and human rights organizations for independent investigations and autopsies were disregarded by the authorities. No investigations were known to have been carried out into these and scores of other deaths in custody which had occurred in previous years (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 to 1995).

Hundreds of Sahrawis and Moroccans who "disappeared" after arrest in previous years remained unaccounted for (see previous Amnesty International Reports). Among them were ‘Abdelhaq Rouissi, a trade unionist who "disappeared" in 1964; ‘Abdallah Cherrouk, a student who "disappeared" in 1981; and Mohamed-Salem Bueh-Barca and Tebker Ment Sidi-Mohamed Ould Khattari who "disappeared" in Laayoune in 1976.

No steps were taken to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for the "disappearance" of hundreds of Sahrawis and Moroccans who were released in 1991 after up to 18 years in secret detention, and for the deaths of scores of others. Neither those released in 1991 nor the families of those who died in secret detention received compensation. Some of those released in 1991 were rearrested during the year. They included Ahmed Merzak, who had been held for 18 years in the Tazmamert secret detention centre, who was detained twice for questioning in Rabat in July and August and was prevented from leaving the country, and Gleimina Ment Tayeb Yazidi, who had been released from the secret detention centre in Qal'at M'Gouna in 1991. She was arrested in November in Laayoune and was reported to be still detained incommunicado at the end of the year.

Abraham Serfaty, a former prisoner of conscience who was forcibly expelled to France on his release in 1991, remained unable to return to Morocco.

Three people were sentenced to death in Fes in January. They were tried with 14 others in connection with armed attacks, including an attack on a hotel in Marrakech in which two Spanish tourists were killed in August 1994. More than 40 other people were reported to be on death row, but no executions were carried out.

In meetings in May and December with the Conseil Consultatif des Droits de l'Homme, Consultative Council for Human Rights, and with the Human Rights Minister, Amnesty International raised its concerns about human rights violations in Morocco and Western Sahara. It called for the release of prisoners of conscience; for the retrial or release of political prisoners sentenced after unfair trials; for clarification of the fate of hundreds of Sahrawis and Moroccans who remained "disappeared"; and for full and impartial investigations into allegations of torture and ill-treatment, past cases of "disappearance" and deaths in custody.