Mahmi Maliani, a 22 year-old Engineering student from Casablanca, was abducted on the morning of 19 March 2010 by security services officers while on his way to the local mosque for Friday prayers and has since disappeared. Numerous bystanders witnessed his kidnapping. Shortly after the abduction his father began visiting various police stations and bureau in the region in an effort to obtain any information regarding his sons disappearance. Despite having lodged a complaint with the Casablanca Prosecutor General, there is still no information regarding Mahmi Maliani's arrest.

There has been no sign of Mahmi Maliani for over three months. The maximum statutory period of detention in Morocco is 12 days, however the authorities refuse to recognize his arrest. As a result of this continued affront, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), on 5 May 2010, requesting its intervention on behalf of Mahdi Malian.

His arrest is most likely linked to that of Zouhair Benkassou and Mohammed Boutarfa, also engineering students at the same university, who were disappeared on 1 May 2010.

As part of its visit to Morocco, which took place between 22 and 25 June 2009, the WGEID stated in it mission report (A/HRC/13 / 31/Add.1) of 9 February 2010, that it had received allegations of arrests, abductions or long-term detentions primarily in the context of the fight against terrorism, which took place without the victims having had access to lawyers or their families being informed of their arrest.

Since the adoption of Resolution 1373 the Security Council on 28 September 2001, Morocco, used the legislation in order to establish stricter enforcement mechanisms as a pretext for fulfilling its counter-terrorism obligations. This has had serious consequences for individual freedoms and the fundamental rights of citizens.

As such, the Moroccan authorities have enacted the Law No. 03-03 in the fight against terrorism, which came into force on 5 June 2003 and incorporated in the new Code of Criminal Procedure in the aftermath of 16 May 2003 [link].

This new law significant reduces the international standards for the protection of human rights, especially in relation to persons suspected of terrorism, by expanding the scope of security services and judicial authorities.

The practice of the security services also demonstrates that they are ignoring the actual provisions of the antiterrorism law by ignoring the minimum guarantees of access to legal counsel within the relevant timeframe.

Resolution 64/168 of the United Nations General Assembly adopted on 18 December 2009 explicitly recalled that States must ensure that no form of deprivation of liberty against the detainee impeded the protection of the law and respect of the guarantees relating to freedom, security and dignity of the person under international law.