- Human rights groups today accuse Moroccan authorities of is undermining its recent human rights progress in the crackdown on suspected Islamist militants. The more than 2,000 jailed alleged militants cannot expect fair trials and many have been subjected to torture in order to extract confessions.
After suicide bombers attacked Casablanca on 16 May last year, Moroccan authorities adopted sweeping counter-terror legislation and arrested more than 2,000 suspected militants, subjecting many to threats and abuse. Suspects were held in prolonged incommunicado detention, and faced other violations of their right to due process and a fair trial, according to a report released today by the US group Human Rights Watch.
- Detainees are on a fast-track to conviction because prosecutors and judges show little interest in how the police obtained their statements, commented Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch. "Their treatment shows that the human rights advances in Morocco have largely bypassed the courts."
The 70-page report features interviews with the lawyers and family members of Moroccan prisoners who said that their interrogators had subjected them to physical and mental abuse, in some cases amounting to torture, in order to extract confessions or to induce them to sign a statement they had not made. Many were held incommunicado by police beyond the legal time limit and did not have prompt access to defence counsel.
Human Rights Watch also goes far in confirming the existence of a secret detention centre at Temara, a compound just south of Rabat on the road to Casablanca. At least four detainees had told the group of a stay in the centre, run by the DST; a domestic intelligence gathering agency that by the law is not authorised to arrest, detain, and interrogate persons suspected of criminal offences. Moroccan authorities have denied the existence of a detention facility run by the DST.
Abdelghani Ben Taous, a 45-years-old teacher in Islamic studies, who was arrested on 10 June 2003 and taken to Temara, according to information given to Human Rights Watch by his sister and lawyer. During the trial, Mr Ben Taous said that he had signed a confession under torture and duress and further testified that he had been sexually abused during his interrogation.
Mr Ben Taous' lawyer told Human Rights Watch that in the police log the date of his client's arrest was recorded as 23 June – and not the actual date of 10 June – "so as to cover up the illegally long period he was held in garde à vue detention in Temara." At Temara "he endured beatings with a stick, electric shocks, slaps on the face, shackling, verbal intimidation and humiliation, and sleep deprivation."
It was mainly the legal changes passed quickly in the wake of the Casablanca bombings that had made the human rights violations against Mr Ben Taous and other possible, according to the US human rights. Morocco's current counter-terror legislation "erodes rights protections." For example, the legislation extends to 12 days the time police can hold a terror suspect before he is brought before a judge, and to 10 days the time he can be held before consulting a lawyer.
- The legislation further introduces a sweeping definition of 'terrorism' offences, for which stiffer penalties are applicable, Human Rights Watch said.
However, the human rights problems in Morocco were running "deeper than any one piece of legislation," added Ms Whitson. "Even the recent reforms to the criminal justice system have not alleviated the systemic failures to protect rights."
The group recommended that Moroccan courts should fulfil their role as a bulwark against abuse by rejecting evidence that is tainted by torture, improper coercion, or other serious violations of due process, and by holding the perpetrators of such abuse accountable.
The report also examines one of the positive human rights developments in Morocco, the establishment of a commission to document and provide compensation for grave abuses that the state perpetrated against dissidents and others under the rule of the King's father, Hassan II.
In this respect, the report describes the Equity and Reconciliation Commission as "the Arab world's most serious effort yet to acknowledge and address past abuses," but expresses concern about limitations on the commission's mandate and powers. The US group offers recommendations to help the commission address past abuses in a fashion that contributes more effectively to ending impunity.
Human Rights Watch in a statement today urged the United States and the European Union to integrate respect for human rights in their growing security cooperation with Morocco. The report also urges the US and European countries "not to extradite or otherwise forcibly return to Morocco persons suspected of terrorist offences unless the government provides verifiable guarantees that such persons will not be subject to torture or other ill-treatment."
- The suicide bombings of May 2003 were despicable attacks on innocent civilians, said Ms Whitson. "But unless authorities fight extremist violence in a way that is consistent with their public commitment to human rights, the rights of all Moroccans are at risk."
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