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Morocco - Latest Publications
MOR - News
Morocco: Journalist and Human Rights Defender, El Hasnaoui Victim of New Reprisals in Kenitra Prison
MOR - News | 20 January 2016
Moroccan journalist and human rights defender, Mustapha El Hasnaoui, was recently placed in solitary confinement by the prison administration of Kenitra prison. His family has had no contact with him since 7 January 2016 and is systematically denied the right to visit. Like many prisoners convicted of terrorism or suspected of belonging to the "Islamist movement", El Hasnaoui is particularly exposed to punishment and other degrading treatment at the hands of his guards. In July 2015, he had already been placed in an isolation cell for 18 days, where he nearly died of asphyxiation due to a gas leak in the prison. On 20 January, Alkarama seized the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to bring to its attention the disciplinary action El Hasnaoui continues to suffer under.
Morocco: "The Belliraj Case" − Alkarama Calls on the UN to Invite the Moroccan Authorities to Release Abdelkader Belliraj, Sentenced to Life Imprisonment on the Sole Basis of Confessions Obtained Under Torture
MOR - News | 18 January 2016
On 4 January 2016, Alkarama seized the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) with the case of Abdelkader Belliraj, a 59-year-old Belgian-Moroccan citizen sentenced by the Moroccan authorities to life imprisonment in 2009 on the sole basis of confessions obtained under torture – which is why his case was dismissed in Belgium in October 2013. By seizing the WGAD for a second time, Alkarama hopes that this UN mechanism for the protection of human rights establishes the arbitrary nature of the victim's deprivation of liberty that has lasted for eight years, and calls on the Moroccan authorities to take the necessary measures to release him.
Morocco: Abdul Rahman Alhaj Ali still Pending Extradition More Than one Year After his Arrest
MOR - News | 28 December 2015
On 23 December 2015, Alkarama seized the Inter-ministerial Delegation for Human Rights (DIDH) regarding the case of Abdul Rahman Alhaj Ali, arrested on 30 October 2014 by the Moroccan police and still detained in Kénitra to this day without any legal basis.
Morocco: The Authorities must Redouble Human Rights Efforts
MOR - News | 17 December 2015
Since 2011, Morocco has undertaken a series of institutional reforms affirming the protection of human rights. The 2011 Constitution embodies several rights and fundamental freedoms, and provides that secret detention is a crime of the utmost gravity. Despite these notable legislative reforms, the Moroccan authorities must do more to assure that certain provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified by Morocco in 1979, are fully implemented. The fight against terrorism is too often a pretext for the authorities to suspend or restrict the fundamental rights expressed in the Covenant in an abusive manner, despite their absolute nature.
Morocco: Woman Sentenced to 1 Month in Prison for Denouncing Police Violence
MOR - News | 02 December 2015
On 5 November 2015, Fatima Karmad was sentenced to one month imprisonment by the Taza Court of Appeal after filing a complaint against the Caïd (local State representative), who had abused her a month earlier. Ignoring her testimony, the Taza judicial authorities instead accused this 46-year-old mother of three of "humiliation and violence" against the local Caïd. Considering that this was an obvious case of collusion between the judicial authorities and the police of Taza, on 1 December 2015, Alkarama seized the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers (SR IJL) asking her to call on the Moroccan authorities to act on Karmad's complaint of physical violence and stop any interference by State officials in court cases.