Morocco/Western Sahara:
On the eve of the trial in Laayoune of Sahrawi human rights defenders Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai, Amnesty International fears that the two men are being subjected to judicial harassment on account of their work as human rights defenders and their advocacy of the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.
Amnesty International calls on the Moroccan authorities to ensure that tomorrows proceedings meet international standards for fair trial. However, it believes the two men, who have been in detention for over half a year, may be prisoners of conscience, in which case they should be released immediately and unconditionally. The organizations concerns are made more acute by the fact that Brahim Sabbar has already been sentenced in an earlier trial to two years imprisonment on the basis of charges which Amnesty International believes were probably trumped up.
Brahim Sabbar, Secretary General of the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State and well known to Amnesty International as a long-standing human rights activist, along with his colleague Ahmed Sbai, face charges which include belonging to an unauthorized association and inciting violent protest activities against the Moroccan administration of Western Sahara.
Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai appear to have been targeted for their role in collecting and disseminating information about human rights violations in Western Sahara, as well as their public advocacy of the right of the people of the territory to self-determination. They were arrested on 17 June 2006 at a police checkpoint at the entrance to Laayoune in Western Sahara, when returning by car from the nearby town of Boujdour, where they say they had been supervising the creation of a branch of their association. Shortly beforehand, in May 2006, their association had published a 121-page report detailing dozens of allegations of arbitrary arrest and torture or ill-treatment committed by Moroccan security forces in previous months.
Brahim Sabbars previous trial took place shortly after his arrest. He was charged with assaulting and disobeying a police officer during his arrest, but denied the accusation, maintaining that police officers in fact kicked, slapped and insulted him. Other Sahrawi human rights defenders have reported similar or more severe ill-treatment during arrest or questioning. He was sentenced to two years in prison on 27 June 2006. In the same trial, two brothers, Ahmed and Saleh Haddi, who had been travelling with Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai at the time of their arrest were convicted on similar charges and handed down a three-year prison sentence and a one-year suspended prison sentence respectively. The decisions were confirmed on appeal on 20 July 2006.
Amnesty International had a number of concerns about the fairness of the trial. In particular, it was concerned about the courts dismissal of defence lawyers requests to call and question witnesses, despite this being a cornerstone of the right of defence. Furthermore, Brahim Sabbar said that he was never allowed to read and check the accuracy of the record of the police interview with him, in breach of Moroccan law.
Finally, Amnesty International appeals to the Moroccan authorities to stop criminalizing the peaceful work of Sahrawi human rights defenders and to protect the right of all Sahrawis to peacefully express their views, including on the issue of Western Sahara, without fear of reprisal.
BACKGROUND
? Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai
Brahim Sabbar has been subjected to persecution by the Moroccan authorities on a number of occasions over the last quarter of a century. He was arrested in 1981 at the age of 22 and held without charge or trial in secret detention centres until his released in 1991. The Moroccan authorities have never provided a formal reason for his arrest and enforced disappearance, but it is believed that he was targeted for peacefully demanding the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination.
In 2001 Brahim Sabbar was among 36 Moroccan and Sahrawi human rights defenders sentenced to three months in prison for participating in the organization of an unauthorized demonstration in Rabat, the Moroccan capital, on 9 December 2000. The rally had been called to demand an end to impunity for perpetrators of human rights abuses in the country. He and the others were acquitted on appeal. For more information, please see the report Morocco / Western Sahara: Freedom of assembly on trial (AI Index: MDE 29/011/2001): http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE290112001?open
