Report
Yet another UN complaint finds Moroccan abuse of Sahrawi prisoners
‘Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases, but point to a structural problem in Morocco's handling of the Gdeim Izik-related cases.’
The UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) has once again found that Morocco is violating “the rights of Sahrawi detainees linked to the Gdeim Izik camp protest in Western Sahara,” highlighting that the ten cases examined so far point to “a consistent pattern of arbitrary arrests, solitary confinement, acts of torture or ill-treatment during interrogations, and the subsequent use of confessions obtained under duress in judicial proceedings.”
The CAT published its findings on May 20 after examining four complaints concerning detainees arrested following the dismantling of the Gdeim Izik camp near Laâyoune in 2010. The camp, which at one point housed over 20,000 protesters, had been set up by Sahrawi residents of the occupied territories to peacefully protest against “deliberate discrimination by Rabat.”
According to the League for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisoners in Moroccan Jails (LPPS), 25 people were arrested – in addition to the deaths of 13 activists – by Rabat’s security forces following the dismantling of the camp. They were subjected to torture and ill-treatment during their arrest, interrogation, transfer and detention. Based on the CAT's investigations, the activists reported that they were “severely beaten, burned with cigarettes, threatened with rape, suspended in the so-called 'roast chicken' position for extended periods of time, subjected to 'falaka' – repeated blows with an iron bar to the soles of the feet – held in solitary confinement, deprived of food and medical care,” and denied access to lawyers and family.
“Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases, but point to a structural problem in Morocco's handling of the Gdeim Izik-related cases,” stated Peter Vedel Kessing, Vice Chair of the CAT. He added that the UN had already ruled on six other similar cases, without any “action or follow-up by Rabat.”
All the imprisoned Sahrawi activists said that, after being subjected to torture, they were forced to sign or leave their fingerprints on statements whose contents they did not know, and that these “confessions” were subsequently used as key evidence in the criminal proceedings against them. The four activists were ultimately sentenced: two to life in prison and the other two to 30 years in prison.
One of the cases that has received the most media attention in recent years is that of Naama Asfari, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison following the Gdeim Izik protests. The Sahrawi activist continues to be held in solitary confinement for several consecutive months each year at the Kenitra prison and has been denied, for several years, any opportunity to even see his wife, French national Claude Mangin. According to the LPPS, the hunger strike Asfari began in late April is a protest against three years of “silence and inaction by the Moroccan authorities and the international community,” following the 2023 opinion issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Following the ruling, the Polisario Front strongly denounced the “persistent repression of Sahrawi activists in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, exacerbated by the impunity guaranteed to Morocco,” and condemned the political support of several Western countries for the “Moroccan autonomy plan,” which it considers a “legitimization of the occupation and the ongoing human rights violations against the Sahrawi people.”
Rabat has already been reprimanded in the past for violence against prisoners in its jails, to the point that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has attempted several times to send a technical monitoring mission to Western Sahara – a proposal that has consistently been rejected by the US and France, permanent members of the Security Council and allies of Morocco.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ci-risiamo-con-gli-abusi-del-marocco-sui-prigionieri-saharawi-nuova-denuncia-onu on 2026-05-23