On 25 June 2010, Alkarama sent their cases to the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism and the Special Rapporteur on Torture. Alkarama has requested their intervention with the Moroccan authorities to ensure that they initiate an investigation into allegations of torture, to ensure confessions extracted under torture are not used as evidence in their trials.

Alkarama alerted the Working Group on Forced Disappearance of their disappearances on 20 and 21 April 2010. Following their abductions, the families of the victim had no information as to their whereabouts, while the 12 day legal period of maximum custody quickly elapsed. Following several weeks of incommunicado detention, during which they were subjected to torture and ill-treatment, they were finally presented before a judge.

Younes Zarli beaten and drugged while held incommunicado

Younes Zarli, 29, is a resident of Casablanca and a father of one. He was abducted on 11 April 2010 at his home and detained incommunicado for nearly a month. Recent information have confirmed that he was in fact taken to Temara detention center where he was detained for 16 days.

Information has now come to light that when he arrived at the Tamara detention center he had already been stripped of his clothes and severely beaten.

Intense and abusive interrogations session were to follow, during which he was repeatedly drugged and threatened that he would never see his family if he did not confess to the allegations put against him.

According to Moroccan law, police stations do not hold the jurisdiction to detain defendants or carry out preliminary investigations. On 6 May 2010, he was eventually brought before the investigating judge of Rabat's Court of Appeals.

Said Ezziouani, drugged and deprived of sleep during brutal investigations

Said Ezziouani, 30, is a resident of Casablanca. He was abducted on 12 April 2010 and detained incommunicado for nearly a month. He was also brought before the investigating judge of the Rabat's Court of Appeals Rabat on 6 May 2010.

According to reports that only recently came to light, following his abduction Said Ezziouani was taken to Temara detention center where he spent 14 days incommunicado. He had also been stripped and beaten before his arrival at Temara, where he would spend several nights of sleep deprivation torture. Interrogations took place at night in order to deliberately prevent him from sleeping. On three occasions, his hands were tied behind his back in order to prevent him from protecting himself, agents struck him directly in the face. He was also forced to drink water containing narcotics. He was finally transferred to Maarif police station in Casablanca where he was tortured once more.

Forced confessions and preliminary hearing

Such practices have the sole purpose of extracting forced confessions. These confessions are then used in the minutes, which themselves contain falsified dates of arrest, with no real correspondence to the actually date of arrest.

On the occasion of their first appearance before the magistrate, the two men denied the accusations against them. However, they have been remanded in custody and remain so to date. They are currently waiting for the investigation to finish and the end of their trial.

Their families fear that the forced confessions will be used to convict them, as the Salé Court of Appeals may use the confessions as evidence for delivering heavy handed sentences.

While their situations remain precarious, the families are worried that their arrests and detentions are somehow linked to their brothers' (Saleh Zarli and Abderrahim Ezziouani) cases, who both received heavy sentences in the aftermath of the Casablanca bombings on 16 May 2003.