Human rights defender Aminatou Haidar was allowed to return to her home in Laayoune on 17 December. She and her family have since been kept under constant surveillance, and several visitors have been prevented from seeing her.
Aminatou Haidar returned home on the evening of 17 December after a month on hunger strike in Lanzarote airport in protest at being expelled from Morocco on 14 November for stating on her landing card that her home is in Western Sahara, a territory Morocco annexed in 1975, rather than “Moroccan Sahara” and for leaving blank the question on her nationality.
Since returning home she has not been able to resume her normal life and work in defence of human rights, as the Moroccan authorities have kept her under constant, overt surveillance, and have stopped everyone who tries to visit her. Police and other security agents have been stationed close to her house round the clock. They have followed Aminatou Haidar whenever she goes out. They have turned back the foreign journalists and supporters who have tried to visit her. Her family members, friends and supporters from Western Sahara and elsewhere in Morocco have been harassed, intimidated and reportedly some were assaulted when they have tried to visit her. Several have been detained and questioned by security agents, including agents from Directorate for the Surveillance of the Territory, Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST). Others have been stopped and ordered to report to a police station, where they have been detained for some hours, interrogated and then ordered to go away.
Aminatou Haidar is in poor health as she suffers from anaemia and a stomach ulcer. However she is recovering slowly from the effects of the hunger strike. She may travel to Spain to continue the medical treatment she began there, as she believes she will not be able to get adequate medical attention in Morocco and Western Sahara.
PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Arabic, French, English or your own language: - Urging the Moroccan authorities to allow Aminatou Haidar to travel freely, both within Morocco and Western Sahara and abroad; - Urging them to ensure that other Sahrawi human rights defenders, in particular Aminatou Haidar's friends, colleagues and supporters, can visit her home without fear of harassment and intimidation; - Urging them to ensure that Aminatou Haidar and all human rights defenders are able to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association without fear of reprisals.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 26 FEBRUARY 2010 TO: Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi Département du Premier Ministre Palais Royal Touarga Rabat, Morocco Fax: +212 5377 69995 Email: courier@pm.gov.ma Salutation: Your Excellency
Minister of Interior Taïeb Charkaoui Ministère de l’Intérieur Quartier Administratif Rabat, Morocco Fax: +212 5377 62056 Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to: Minister of Justice Mohamed Naciri Ministère de la Justice Place Mamounia Rabat, Morocco Fax: +212 5377 30772 Salutation: Your Excellency
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Amnesty International has called on the Moroccan authorities many times to respect Aminatou Haidar's right to freedom of movement, freedom of expression, association and assembly as well as the right of human rights defenders to collect and disseminate information and views on human rights issues without fear of harassment or intimidation. The Moroccan authorities appear to be adopting an increasingly repressive approach to the exercise of these rights by Sahrawis, in breach of their obligations under international human rights treaties, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Morocco is a state party, and the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms known as the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi, who was detained in conditions amounting to an enforced disappearance by the Moroccan security forces in October, is now facing trial on criminal charges and has been remanded to prison. He is believed to have been tortured in custody, and is at risk of receiving an unfair trial.
Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi was abducted by men in civilian clothes on the street in the capital, Rabat, on 28 October 2009 and taken to an unknown location. The men are believed to have been agents of the internal intelligence agency, the Directorate for the Surveillance of the Territory (Direction de la surveillance du territoire, DST), who took him to an unofficial place of detention, believed to have been in the city of Témara, near Rabat, and held him there until 15 November. This unofficial detention centre is one of the main places where torture is reported, particularly of people suspected of terrorism-related activities. Here Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi was apparently questioned about his political beliefs and alleged links to the Polisario Front, which calls for independence for Western Sahara. He was apparently made to sign a police transcript of his interrogation under duress.
On 15 November, Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi was taken to the General Crown Prosecutor and then an investigative judge in the Court of Appeal of Casablanca. He had no legal representation, though by law both the prosecutor and the investigative judge were obliged to inform the accused of his right to appoint a lawyer. The investigation is ongoing but he is apparently accused of a number of offences, including drug-trafficking. The investigative judge ordered him to be remanded in custody in the Oukasha prison in Casablanca.
The authorities did not inform his family of his whereabouts and they only found out about his detention in Oukasha from unofficial sources, on 17 December. He is held in solitary confinement and there are concerns for his physical and mental health. He is believed to have carried out a hunger strike for over a month, which he now ended. He has not been examined by a doctor since his arrest on 28 October.
PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Arabic, French or your own language: - Expressing concern that Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi was subjected to an enforced disappearance from 28 October to 15 November, during which time he is believed to have been tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and urging the Moroccan authorities to ensure that he is protected from further torture or other ill-treatment, is granted any medical care he may require, and has regular access to his family and legal representation; - Urging the Moroccan authorities to investigate immediately allegations that Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi was tortured or otherwise ill-treated by members of the security forces, and to bring those responsible to justice in compliance to Morocco’s obligations under international law; - Urging them to ensure he receives a fair trial and that statements made under duress are not used as a basis to convict him.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 26 FEBRUARY 2010 TO: Minister of Justice His Excellency Mohamed Naciri Ministry of Justice Place Mamounia, Rabat, Morocco Fax: +212 537 72 37 10 +212 537 73 07 72 +212 537 73 47 25 Salutation: Your Excellency
Minister of Interior His Excellency Taib Cherkaoui Ministry of Interior Quartier Administratif, Rabat, Morocco Fax: +212 537762056 Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to: President of the Advisory Board of Human Rights Ahmed Herzenni, Place Ach-chouhada, B.P. 1341, 10000 Rabat, Morocco Fax: +212 537 726856 Email: ccdh@ccdh.org.ma
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi, a supporter of independence for Western Sahara, was released from prison in June 2009 when he completed a three-year prison sentence for assaulting and disobeying a police officer, offences supposedly committed while he was being arrested on 17 June 2006 at a police checkpoint at the entrance to Laayoune, along with his brother and two prominent Sahrawi human rights defenders.
On 2 November 2009 the Moroccan official news agency announced that a criminal gang of drug traffickers and car thieves had been broken up. One of the gang, according to the agency, was a member of the Polisario Front. By this they are believed to have meant Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi. The Polisario Front, which calls for independence for Western Sahara, runs a self-declared government-in-exile in Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf in south-western Algeria.
In Morocco and Western Sahara, "confessions" extracted under torture or other ill-treatment, such as the document Ahmed Mahmoud Haddi was made to sign, have been used as evidence in court, in breach of the Convention against Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Morocco is a state party.
The Moroccan authorities appear to be adopting an increasingly repressive approach to Sahrawi people's exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. Since seven Sahrawi activists visited the Tindouf camps in late September and early October 2009, Amnesty International has noted an increase of reports of harassment of Sahrawi human rights defenders and activists including travel bans, verbal intimidation and threats, an increase in existing surveillance, the prevention of activists meeting with foreign observers, and the confiscation of passports and identification documents. Amnesty International considers the inclusion of a human rights monitoring component in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), up for renewal in April 2010, to be a pivotal step to addressing human rights violations in Western Sahara.
WESTERN SAHARA CAMPAIGN UK
The Western Sahara Campaign works in solidarity with the Saharawi people to generate political support in order to advance their right to self-determination and to promote their human rights.
Our role is to lobby the UK Government and the EU. You can help us to ensure the UK does not ignore the voice of the Saharawi people.
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