Western Sahara: Sahrawi Activists, Detained 18 Months, Await Verdict
New York - AMIPS - " Western Sahara activists have been in pretrial detention for 18 months, with numerous delays in their trial," Human Rights Watch said today. Their trial on charges of "harming [Morocco's] internal security" has proceeded in fits and starts, with limited evidence produced against them. Four co-defendants are provisionally free.
The police arrested the six men and one woman on October 8, 2009, upon their return from visiting the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Unlike previous low-profile family visits by Sahrawis from the disputed, Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara to the refugee camps, this delegation openly met there with officials of the Polisario, the Sahrawi independence movement that runs a government-in-exile and administers the camps.
"The court trying the seven Sahrawi activists should without any further delay issue a verdict that properly presents the evidence and reasoning behind the verdict," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
The seven defendants were initially under investigation by a military court investigative judge on charges that they had "undermined external state security." The military court judge finally referred the case to a civilian court for them to face trial on the lesser charge of harming internal security.
Brahim Dahane, Ali Salem Tamek, and Ahmed Naciri remain in jail while Degja Lachgar, Yahdih Etarrouzi, Rachid Sghaier, and Saleh Lebaihi are provisionally free.
The police arrested the six men and one woman on October 8, 2009, upon their return from visiting the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Unlike previous low-profile family visits by Sahrawis from the disputed, Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara to the refugee camps, this delegation openly met there with officials of the Polisario, the Sahrawi independence movement that runs a government-in-exile and administers the camps.
"The court trying the seven Sahrawi activists should without any further delay issue a verdict that properly presents the evidence and reasoning behind the verdict," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
The seven defendants were initially under investigation by a military court investigative judge on charges that they had "undermined external state security." The military court judge finally referred the case to a civilian court for them to face trial on the lesser charge of harming internal security.
Brahim Dahane, Ali Salem Tamek, and Ahmed Naciri remain in jail while Degja Lachgar, Yahdih Etarrouzi, Rachid Sghaier, and Saleh Lebaihi are provisionally free.
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