Udenrigsudvalget 2016-17
URU Alm.del Bilag 135
Offentligt
20. marts 2017
A report about the trial of the activists from Western Sahara, the Gdeim Izik Group in Morocco.
Dear Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen
I would appreciate if you could circulate the report among the members of
the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Please find attached:
1. A report about the trial of the activists from Western Sahara, the
Gdeim Izik Group in Morocco.
2. Statement of Sidati Mohamed, Minister Delegate for Europe Member of the
National Secretariat of the Polisario Front: The trial of Sahrawi political
prisoners Gdeim Izik continues, raising indignation and anger.
Trial Observation Report from the proceedings held on March 13th until
March 15th, against the “Group Gdeim Izik” in Salé, Morocco.
Executive summary
Our names are Tone Sørfonn Moe (Norway) and Isabel Lourenco (Portugal, Isabel Maria
Goncalves da Silva Tavares Lourenco). We are international observers attending the trial
against the Group Gdeim Izik at the Appeal Court of Salé. We are accredited by Fundación
Sahara Occidental. The overall objective of our attendance is to evaluate whether the trial
against the group is a fair trial, according to Moroccan and international standards.
Statement of Sidati Mohamed, Minister Delegate for Europe Member of the
National Secretariat of the Polisario Front
The trial of Sahrawi political prisoners Gdeim Izik continues, raising
indignation and anger.
[BRUSSELS—15 March] As the trial of 24 Sahrawi political prisoners involved in the
Gdeim Izik protest camp resumed this week in Rabat, Mohamed Sidati, Polisario’s EU
Representative, calls on the EU to condemn the ongoing trial. The prisoners were arrested
in the aftermath of Morocco’s forcible destruction of a peaceful protest camp at Gdeim Izik
in 2010, and have been imprisoned since then in inhumane conditions. The freedom of
assembly has been routinely denied in Western Sahara, with Moroccan security forces
violently disrupting protests, and no case is more emblematic of this than Gdeim Izik.
Commenting today, Mr. Sidati said:
“The case of the Gdeim Izik prisoners is a violation of international law. These prisoners
have been held for years based on evidence obtained under torture. They were tried in a
military court despite being civilians, and prevented from seeing their families. A fair
judicial process is an essential condition for negotiations between Morocco and the
Polisario Front. Morocco’s pattern of arbitrary detention and inhumane treatment of
prisoners cannot continue. The EU has a moral and legal responsibility – as a bastion of
human rights - to condemn this trial, and demand Morocco to immediately release all
Sahrawi prisoners unlawfully detained. All violations of human rights in the Western
Sahara are a consequence of the Sahrawi people being denied the opportunity to exercise
their right to self-determination. The non-realization of this right has prevented the
enjoyment of all other rights guaranteed in the core international human rights treaties.”
Regards,
Abba Malainin
-THE REPRESENTATION OF FRENTE POLISARIO
( WESTERN SAHARA) IN DENMARK
Email [email protected]
Tlf
(+45) 38887674
Mobile (+45) 91743018
Western Sahara ( VESTSAHARA)
Africa's last colony
In 1963, the United Nations (UN) included Western Sahara in the list of countries to be decolonized and asserted the
right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. In 1966 the UN, for the first time, passed a resolution calling for this
self-determination to be exercised by a referendum. On 31 October 1975, Morocco and Mauritania invaded Western
Sahara as Spain (the former colonial power) looked on. The Saharawi people were expelled from their homes by force,
including the use of napalm. In 1991 the United Nations brokered a ceasefire and agreed to organize a referendum in
which the Saharawi people could vote on the future of Western Sahara. Morocco still refuses to allow UN sponsored
referendum to take place.