Twelve years after the arrest of 25 Saharawi activists by the Moroccan police in a camp in Western Sahara, six of them lodged a complaint, on November 8, against Rabat for acts of torture with the Committee against Torture (CAT) of the United Nations in Geneva.
Supported by a group of lawyers and NGOs, these detainees ask the Committee to investigate the abuse they say they suffered at the time of their arrest and beyond: these six complainants denounce in particular physical and psychological violence, placements in solitary confinement and multiple refusals of access to care.
Sentenced for demonstrating for the right to self-determination
It all started on October 10, 2010 in the Saharan desert. The Gdeim Izik camp, which initially housed around ten people, grew to the point of bringing together 20,000 Sahrawis who are protesting against their living conditions and demanding their right to self-determination. Since the annexation of most of Western Sahara by Morocco in 1975, the Polisario Front has been calling for the independence of this territory and several movements are actively campaigning for this right.
Negotiations are opened between the Moroccan authorities and representatives of the camp. But, on November 8, the police received the order to dismantle the camp. The situation quickly degenerated, several Sahrawi civilians and Moroccan policemen were killed.
In the weeks that followed, 25 Sahrawi militants suspected of being responsible for the escalation of violence on November 8 were arrested. Among them, Ahmed Sbai, one of the six complainants to the Committee against Torture: his lawyer, Maître Weyl, assures us that he suffered torture – beatings, dog bites – during his five days of interrogation within the the royal gendarmerie of Laayoune (Western Sahara), before being taken to Rabat prison.
An appeal trial that concludes in the absence of evidence of torture
In March 2013, the 25 arrested activists were sentenced by a Moroccan military court to terms ranging from 20 years to life in prison. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch immediately denounce legal proceedings “arbitrary” et “unfair”. Regularly isolated and mistreated, “Ahmed Sbai is very physically affectedunderlines his lawyer. We are counting on the CAT to ask the Moroccan government for provisional measures, in particular the end of solitary confinement”.
In 2017, after the verdict of the military court was overturned, the case was sent back to a civilian court. But following a forensic examination, the judges concluded that there was no evidence of torture. Since then, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have been asking for a second opinion and are counting on the opinion of the UN Committee against Torture to advance their request.
Morocco already called to order by the Committee against Torture
However, the opinions of the Committee are purely advisory. In November 2016, the CAT had already asked Morocco to recognize acts of torture against a spokesperson for the Gdeim Izik camp. In 2022, he again seized Morocco for the acts of torture committed on two other members of the same group. So far, Rabat has never reacted.