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Personal Stories of a Group of Saharawi Students Held in Moroccan Jails Imprisoned Students

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Personal Stories of a Group of Saharawi Students Held in Moroccan Jails Imprisoned Students Imprisoned students Personal stories of a group of Saharawi students held in Moroccan jails Imprisoned students This report tells the story of a group of Saharawi student activists who would later become known as the “Student Group” or the “Group of El Wali”. Through this report, four young men explain vividly, with their own words and without interruption, their life stories. They take us back to the time they started engaging in the Saharawi struggle as children and teenagers, until the day that their student campaigns at universities in Morocco led them to detention, torture, forced confessions and year-long sentences under horrible prison conditions. With this report, we intend to give the students a platform to tell their story, from their own perspective and with their own words. Their stories form the background to a decision rendered by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, published in 2020. *** The report would not have been possible without the help from the students themselves, willing to explain and to share their stories with the world, and with the invaluable help from Saharawi human rights defender and laureate of the Weimar Human Rights Award 2019, Laila Fakhouri, acting as translator and facilitator. The report is written by Tone Sørfonn Moe, legal scholar and member of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, who acted as international legal representative on behalf of the Student Group in front of the United Nations human rights mechanisms. Chapter 4.4 was translated from Arabic to English with the help from Hamahu-Allah Mohamed. Parts of the report have further been reviewed with the help from: Asria Mohamed Taleb, Fabian Woxholth, Silje Sørfonn Moe, Theodor Helland, Cate Lewis, Jade Blue, John Gurr and Ferdinand Girke. The report is published by the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara and the National Union of Students in Norway. Questions regarding the report can be directed to the author, Tone Sørfonn Moe, at [email protected] Published: 10 June 2020 ISBN: 978-82-999726-8-0 2 Imprisoned students List of Content PART I 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: THE PROLONGED OCCUPATION OF WESTERN SAHARA ............................................................................................................................... 5 1.2. METHODOLOGY USED AND THE BACKGROUND FOR IT ............................................................................................................................................................................ 8 2. THE STUDENT GROUP AND THE UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON ARBITRARY DETENTION ......................................................................... 9 2.1. BACKGROUND FOR THE DECISION RENDERED ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2. THE UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON ARBITRARY DETENTION AND OPINION NO. 67/2019 ...................................................................................................... 11 3. THE 14 STUDENTS .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 PART II 4. THE STUDENTS' OWN STORIES .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 4.1. SALEK BABER ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 4.2. BRAHIM MOUSSAYIH ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 50 4.3. AOMAR AJNA........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 77 4.4. AZIZ EL OUAHIDI ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 104 PART III 5. GALLERY OF EXPLANATIONS .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 114 ANNEX - OPINION NO. 67/2019 OF THE UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON ARBITRARY DETENTION ..................................................................... 129 "The man looked at the convict and asked the officer: Does the prisoner know his sentence? No - said the officer - he will experience it on his own body" Franz Kafka, ‘In the Penal Colony’ (1914) 3 Imprisoned students Part I 4 Imprisoned students 1. Introduction Several of the leaders of the Saharawi student organization in the cities of Agadir and Marrakesh, who would later become known as the Student Group or the Group of El Wali,1 was in 2016 arrested, tortured and detained. The students were later sentenced to 3- or 10-years imprisonment for the act of using violence leading to death, on the basis of police records (confessions) signed under torture. Four of the members of the Student Group remain imprisoned; a fifth was arrested in January 2019. This report intends to tell the story of the Saharawi students, serving as background for a recent decision rendered by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning the arrest and detention of the Student Group. The report relates to a total of 14 out of 16 members of the Student Group. 1.1. Historical background: The prolonged occupation of Western Sahara Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory located in the northern parts of Africa, bordering to Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. The greater parts of Western Sahara have, since 1975, been occupied by its neighbouring country, Morocco. Western Sahara was already in 1963 listed as a non-self-governing territory by the United Nations. At that time, Western Sahara was a Spanish colony. As part of the decolonisation process, the United Nations General Assembly asked Spain, in 1966, to organize, as soon as possible, a referendum on self-determination under United Nations supervision.2 In the midst of the decolonisation process, the neighbouring countries set out claims over the territory. The issue was brought forward to the International Court of Justice which rendered an Advisory Opinion in 1975, holding that both Morocco’s and Mauritania’s sovereignty claims were baseless, and that the people of Western Sahara must exercise their right to self-determination. 1 El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, also known as El-Wali, was a Sahrawi leader, co-founder of the Polisario Front. Prior to founding Polisario Front, he was a student at a Moroccan university. Today’s student group is named after El-Wali. 2 It is underscored that Spain is still de jure administering power of Western Sahara, and, therefore, continues to hold responsibilities under Article 73 of the United Nations Charter. Western Sahara is by the United Nations General Assembly listed without on administering power. 5 Imprisoned students Notwithstanding the opinion rendered and shortly thereafter, Morocco occupied and later annexed parts of Western Sahara. Ever since, parts of Western Sahara have been under occupation by Morocco.3 4 The United Nations have not recognised Spain’s withdrawal from the territory.5 Morocco and Western Sahara were in an armed conflict until 1991, when a cease-fire entered into force, and the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established.6 MINURSO does not have human rights monitoring within its mandate and the United Nations have, for decades, been criticised for its lack of monitoring of the situation. Currently, Western Sahara is divided in two, separated by a sand wall guarded by landmines, diving the occupied territories and the Saharawi refugee camps (indicated by the red line in the photo). This report focuses primarily on the occupied territories of Western Sahara, situated on the left-hand side of the red line. In the occupied territories, and in line with the Moroccan sovereignty claim and its policy of annexation - Saharawis face significant discrimination when it comes to education, employment, access to social service, and treatment in both the administrative service and justice system.7 In the occupied territories, the Saharawi people suffers under marginalization, and unemployment is growing. Due to the influx of Moroccan settlers, the Saharawi people have become the minority. According to information provided by the Norwegian government,8 around 400-500 000 Moroccan settlers live in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara. Due to an active settlement policy, the number of settlers increase by
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