The Committee against Torture of the United Nations (UN) was seized, Wednesday, December 28, in the case of Sébastien Raoult, a French student arrested in Morocco and claimed by American justice for cybercrime, announced his lawyer, Philippe Ohayon, who fears his next extradition to the United States.
According to him, a prison guard notified and translated the extradition decree to Mr. Raoult on Monday in his cell. The Moroccan, French and American authorities did not wish to confirm this information to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Court of Cassation of Morocco issued in August a « avis favorable » to the extradition of Sébastien Raoult and the final decision on his transfer rests with the Moroccan Prime Minister.
The 21-year-old former computer science student was arrested on May 31 in Tangier (northern Morocco) on the basis of a red notice issued by Interpol at the request of American justice, when he was preparing to take the plane to return to France. He is accused by the Americans of conspiracy to commit electronic fraud and abuse, serious identity theft and being a member of the “ShinyHunters”, a group of “cybercriminals” suspected of being behind corporate cyberattacks, which he disputes.
One hundred and sixteen years in prison incurred in the United States
Mr. Ohayon appealed to the Committee against Torture to suspend this transfer, relying on “several extraditions granted in recent years by Morocco” and which have been blocked by this UN body. “The Committee considers that Moroccan law does not allow sufficient control against the risk of inhuman and degrading treatment”explained the lawyer to AFP.
The lawyer asks the Committee against Torture “to have the same position as the European Court of Human Rights, according to which there can be no extradition when the person faces a real life sentence, i.e. until his death, without diplomatic guarantees of possibility of sentence adjustment”, he added. He points out that “despite one hundred and sixteen years in prison incurred [aux Etats-Unis] the Moroccan authorities did not ask for and obtain these guarantees”. In his request, Philippe Ohayon also asks Morocco to suspend the extradition of Sébastien Raoult until the Committee against Torture decides and to release him.
Contacted, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which did not confirm the existence of this extradition decree, assured that the Frenchman had received “five consular visits since his incarceration which have made it possible to ascertain his conditions of detention, his state of health and respect for the rights of the defense”. Philippe Ohayon and Paul Raoult, the father of the student, multiply the steps with the French authorities, without success for the moment, in order to have him extradited to France so that he is judged there.