HUMAN RIGHTS “Just Sign Here” Unfair Trials Based on Confessions to the Police in Morocco WATCH “Just Sign Here” Unfair Trials Based on Confessions to the Police in Morocco Copyright © 2013 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-0206 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all. 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For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org JUNE 2013 ISBN: 978-1-62313-0206 “Just Sign Here” Unfair Trials Based on Confessions to the Police in Morocco Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 6 To the Moroccan Government ..................................................................................... 6 To Governments and Institutions that Provide Assistance to Morocco .......................... 9 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 10 Background ...................................................................................................................... 12 A New Constitution ................................................................................................... 12 Enduring Bad Practices ............................................................................................. 14 Convictions based Largely on Contested Confessions ....................................................... 16 Seddik Kebbouri and Co-defendants ......................................................................... 16 Champion Boxer Zakaria Moumni Imprisoned for Fraud ............................................. 23 Background to the Case .......................................................................................................... 24 From Arrest to the Completion of Trial ..................................................................................... 26 The “Belliraj” Mass Terrorism Trial ............................................................................ 36 Court Convicts Based on Police Statements Without Investigating Defendant Claims of Torture, Falsification ........................................................................................................................... 37 Background to the “Belliraj” Affair .......................................................................................... 41 The Position of Moroccan Authorities Regarding the “Belliraj” Trial .......................................... 42 A Credible Complaint of Torture Should Be Investigated Regardless of When It Is Lodged ......... 46 Illegal Arrest and Detention Procedures, If Substantiated, Add Credence to Torture Claims ....... 47 Government Claim that There Was No Distinction Among the Detainees ................................... 59 February 20th Youth Protesters in Sidi el-Bernoussi, Casablanca ............................... 59 Pro-Reform Protesters Convicted on Basis of Confessions ........................................................ 59 Military Court Trial of Sahrawi Activists in the Gdeim Izik case ................................... 66 Background to the Events on Trial ........................................................................................... 67 The Military Court’s Failure to Probe the Allegations of Torture ................................................. 70 Convictions Based on the Defendants’ Contested Statements to the Police .............................. 72 Denial of Timely Access to Justice ..................................................................................... 77 The Gdeim Izik Case ................................................................................................. 77 Trial of Seven Sahrawi Activists ................................................................................ 79 Moroccan Responses ....................................................................................................... 85 Morocco’s Response to Human Rights Watch on Fair Trial Guarantees ....................... 90 Morocco’s 2011 Constitution............................................................................................. 93 The International Law Framework ..................................................................................... 97 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... 101 Appendix I: Responses and Statements from Moroccan Authorities ................................ 102 Appendix II: List of Defendants in "Belliraj" Case and the Sentences They Received ........ 115 Appendix III: List of Defendants in the Gdeim Izik Case .................................................... 116 Appendix IV: Police Statements Attributed to Two Defendants in the Gdeim Izik Trial ..... 120 Appendix V: Medical Report on the Defendants in the Sidi el-Bernoussi Case .................. 128 Summary After the Moroccan boxer Zakaria Moumni won the light-contact boxing world championship in 1999, he repeatedly contacted Moroccan authorities to claim a job in the Youth and Sports Ministry to which he believed he was entitled by law as a Moroccan world title-winner. When he was rebuffed Moumni frequently made his case before Moroccan and international media. On September 27, 2010, police stopped him at Rabat airport upon his return from a trip to Paris. They accused him of “harming sacred values,” a term often used to refer to the monarchy and the person of the king, and detained him. According to Moumni’s account security officials then drove him to an unknown location where they handcuffed, stripped, and blindfolded him and subjected him to torture. They beat him, hung him by his arms, applied electric shocks, and deprived him of sleep and food over a three-day period, Moumni said. On the morning of September 30, Moumni says police put his clothes back on, walked him up a set of metal stairs, and put him in a car. They drove him to the police station in the second district of Rabat, where they removed his blindfold. He found himself in a room with 13 men, most of them in plainclothes. They told him he would have to sign some documents in order to get back his personal belongings. He told Human Rights Watch: They put documents in front of me, but they were covering the top part of the page. I said I wanted to read what I was signing. They said, “Just sign here, you’ll get your stuff back, and you’ll be free to go.” Moumni said the security officials drove him straight from the police station to court, where his trial took place in the absence of defense lawyers, witnesses or spectators. Four days later on October 4, Moumni, sitting in jail, learned that the court had found him guilty of fraud and sentenced him to three years in prison. The conviction was based mainly on a signed statement that Moumni insists he was forced to sign without reading it. 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2013 Morocco’s new Constitution, approved by voters in July 2011, marked a major step both in the protection of fair-trial rights for defendants and in the promotion of judicial independence and access to justice. The judicial provisions of the Constitution were the culmination of an official campaign to reform Morocco’s justice system, which aimed, in the words of King Mohammed VI, to "make justice more trustworthy, credible, effective, and equitable, because it serves as a strong shield to protect the rule of law." However, enduring flaws in the judicial system indicate that reforming the judiciary will be an uphill struggle. This report offers analysis of six politically sensitive cases adjudicated between 2008 and 2013, including the case of Zakaria Moumni, where the courts violated the right of defendants to a fair trial. The six cases, involving a total of 84 defendants of whom 81 served time in prison, highlight two major weaknesses. First, in five of the six cases, the courts handed down convictions based largely on confessions that the police obtained from defendants and that those defendants contested in court. The courts did not make a proper effort to determine if these confessions were obtained through torture of the defendants or other illegal methods. The courts also based their convictions on incriminating written statements by witnesses or complainants without requiring those persons to provide their testimony in court where the defendants or their representatives could challenge them. Second, in two of the six cases, there was a clear denial to the 32 defendants, especially to