Report of Amnesty International sheds light on torture in Morocco, Western Sahara

PARIS- A report by Amnesty International disclosing the practice of torture by the Moroccan authorities in Morocco and in occupied Western Sahara will be presented, on 19 May, in the moment when fears have been expressed by NGOs on a French-Moroccan agreement of legal cooperation, which came under heavy criticism

Entitled "The shadow of impunity: Torture in Morocco and in Western Sahara," this report which will be presented by Geneviève Garrigos, Head of Amnesty International France (AIF), is part of Amnesty International's campaign "Stop Torture", media reported.

This document notably unveils "the use of torture and other mal-treatments by the Moroccan police forces, especially during the police custodyand interrogations," the same source said.

It confirms the information, already been issued. Recently, the president of Robert F. Kennedy Centre of Human Rights (RFK), Kerry Kennedy, had said that "the reports on human rights violations in Western Sahara by Morocco are undeniable."

Amnestydocument points out that "any citizen can be tortured: demonstrators, political activists or students as persons suspected of terrorism or common crime."

Based on 173 cases of torture committed between 2010 and 2014, the report cites two Moroccan nationals victims of torture, including a captain the Royal Moroccan Air Force sentenced to two years and a half in prison and arbitrarily detained for 30 months for having denounced in the newspaper Le Monde, corruption prevailing within the Moroccan army.