Urgent Action Morocco: Health risks for detainee in isolation for 232 days
Following seven months of prolonged solitary confinement, Ali Aarrass' health condition has critically deteriorated. He is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence in Tifelt II Local Prison.
Following seven months of continuous solitary confinement and untreated health problems, Ali Aarrass' health has significantly deteriorated. According to his lawyers and family, Ali Aarrass suffers from chronic nausea and recurrent unexplained vomiting. He has lost around 18 kilograms since his placement in solitary confinement. So far, the prison administration has denied him access to a gastroenterology specialist, despite his repeated requests. Although the food provision has slightly improved, his family has reported that prison guards refuse most of the food and all the nutritional supplements that they bring to Ali Aarrass during visits. Ali Aarrass has also been sleeping on a slab with inadequate covers since he has been detained in solitary confinement.
Ali Aarrass has been held in solitary confinement since his transfer to Tifelt II Local Prison, 60 km east of the capital Rabat, on 10 October 2016. Although the prison authorities had recently transferred other prisoners to his block several weeks ago, they have since been moved. Ali Aarrass is therefore again, since 21 May, being held in an empty prison bloc. He is being held for over 22 hours a day without meaningful human contact and is allowed in the prison courtyard only one hour a day. The social isolation has taken a heavy toll on his psychological conditions. According to UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules), this amounts to prolonged solitary confinement and as such constitutes a form of torture or other ill-treatment.
On 28 March, the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) issued a decision requesting the Moroccan authorities to improve his conditions of detention in order to prevent “irreparable harm”, and to guarantee his rights as a prisoner. On 28 April, the Court of Cassation rejected his appeal and confirmed his conviction and 12-year prison sentence. The Working Group of Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) considers the conviction to be arbitrary as it is based on “confessions” obtained under torture, and has called for his release and adequate compensation.
Please write immediately in Arabic, French or your own language urging the Moroccan authorities to:
Ensure Ali Aarrass has immediate access to a qualified health professional that can provide health care in compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy, and informed consent;
Ensure his detention conditions are in line with international law and the Mandela Rules, including access to primary needs, adequate food and bedding;
Immediately end Ali Aarrass’ solitary confinement and ensure he is held in humane conditions, including by implementing the CAT's decision;
Implement the WGAD's decision calling for the immediate release of Ali Aarrass' and award him adequate compensation.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 11 JULY 2017 TO:
Director of General Administration for Prison Administration and Reinsertion
Mohamed Saleh Tamek
Angle Avenue Arar et rue El-Jouz
Hay El Riyad, Rabat, Morocco
Fax: + 212 5 37 71 26 19
Salutation: Dear Sir
Minister of Justice and Liberties
Mohammed Aujjar
Ministry of Justice and Liberties
Place El Mamounia – BP 1015
Rabat, Morocco
Fax: + 212 5 37 72 13 737
Twitter: @MincomMa
https://www.facebook.com/justice.gov.maroc/
Mail: [email protected]
Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to:
Ministry of State in charge of Human Rights
Mustapha Ramid
Departement Head of Gouvernement
Palais Royal
Touarga, Rabat
Fax: +212 5 37 76 99 95
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. HIS EXCELLENCY MR ABDESSELAM ABOUDRAREmbassy of the Kingdom of Morocco, 49 Queens Gate Gardens SW7 5NE, 0207 581 5001-4, Fax 0207 225 38 62, [email protected] www.morocanembassylondon.org.uk
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the seventh update of UA 219/15. Further information: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde29/6005/2017/en/
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Since 10 October 2016, Ali Aarrass has had minimal meaningful contact with other detainees and has been confined to his single cell for 22 to 23 hours a day. Such conditions amount to prolonged solitary confinement according to the Mandela Rules.
Prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, according to the Mandela Rules, and must not be imposed under any circumstances. The Moroccan authorities have repeatedly denied holding Ali Aarrass in solitary confinement, stating that he is merely held in an individual cell in a sparsely-populated prison. However, as Amnesty International explained to Morocco’s General Delegation for Penitentiary Administration and Reintegration in a letter detailing the organization’s concerns in November 2016, isolation does not need to be intended as punishment in order to constitute solitary confinement.
Ali Aarrass has been detained in Morocco since 14 December 2010 after Spain extradited him at Morocco’s request, ignoring warnings by the UN Human Rights Committee and Amnesty International that he risked being tortured in Morocco. He reported being tortured and otherwise ill-treated in custody between 14 and 24 December 2010, and subsequently in prison. Moroccan authorities have failed to adequately investigate his claims to date. He was convicted, on 19 November 2011, on the sole basis of statements extracted under torture, of illegal use of weapons and participation in a group intending to commit acts of terrorism (under Article 218 of Morocco’s anti-terrorism law, integrated into the Penal Code) and sentenced to 15 years in prison, reduced to 12 years on appeal. On 18 September 2012, he appealed the decision before the Court of Cassation. On 28 April 2017, the
latter eventually issued its final decision by confirming the previous sentence and thus dismissing any further appeal.
In 2013, the WGAD called on the Moroccan authorities to release Ali Aarrass immediately, after concluding that he had been convicted solely on the basis of “confessions” extracted under torture. In 2014, the CAT similarly concluded that the “confession” had been decisive in securing his conviction, in the absence of adequate investigations into the torture he reported.
In parallel, in July 2014, the UN Human Rights Committee decided that Spain had breached its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by extraditing Ali Aarrass to Morocco. The Committee asked Spain
to award Ali Aarrass adequate compensation and take all possible measures to work with the Moroccan authorities to ensure that his detention in Morocco was in line with international law and standards. In 2015, the CAT also expressed concern about
the 2010 extradition and called on Spain to investigate his allegations of torture. In spite of numerous UN decisions confirming the human rights violations that Ali Aarrass has suffered, Moroccan and Spanish authorities have not, to date, offered him redress.
Ali Aarrass has been asking the Belgian authorities for consular assistance for years, which they firstly have been refusing on the ground of his dual citizenship. However, a September 2014 decision by the Brussels Court of Appeals instructed them to do
so. The Belgian authorities have appealed the Court of Appeals’ decision before Belgium’s Court of Cassation, and a final sentence is expected is expected in the coming months.
On 28 March 2017, the CAT issued a decision requesting the Moroccan authorities to improve Ali Aarrass' conditions of detention in order to prevent ''irreparable harm''.
In 2014, Morocco acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) and is expected to establish a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) with a mandate to
monitor all places of detention later this year.
Further information on UA: 219/15 Index: MDE 29/6303/2017 Issue Date: 30 May 2017
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Morocco/Western Sahara: Hunger Strike Due To More Ill-Treatment
Ali Aarrass, a dual Belgian-Moroccan national detained in Salé II prison near Rabat, Morocco, is on a “dry” hunger strike (refusing water in addition to food) to protest ill-treatment at the hands of the prison authorities. He is reportedly in a critical condition, still conscious but unable to stand and struggling to speak.
Ali Aarrass began his hunger strike on 10 July, after prison personnel entered his cell in his absence, took away his personal correspondence, including letters from his family and postcards from supporters, and left his cell in disorder. He was then denied basic prisoner rights including the right to make phone calls, access his mail, shower and use the courtyard in what amounts to ill-treatment. Ali Aarrass intensified his hunger strike on 25 July by refusing water. He has not been permitted to contact his family and lawyer since then.
His family and lawyers told Amnesty International they believe these measures came in retaliation for a public campaign of solidarity with him that is calling for his release and the investigation of reports that he was tortured when detained from 14 to 24 December 2010 by Morocco’s intelligence outfit, the General Directorate for Surveillance of the Territory (DST), at their offices in Témara. Ali Aarrass’s lawyers saw their latest request to lodge a complaint for torture rejected by the Moroccan authorities despite the fact that a medical examination conducted during a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture earlier this year provided further evidence of torture. They are calling upon the Belgian authorities to offer Ali Aarrass consular assistance.
Please write immediately in Arabic, French or your own language:
Calling on the Moroccan authorities to ensure that Ali Arrass is given immediate access to adequate medical care from medical professionals who will act in accordance with medical ethics and not coerce him to end his hunger strike, and that he is treated humanely at all times and not punished in any way for his hunger strike;
Urging the Moroccan authorities to respect Ali Arrass’s prisoner rights and give him access to the outside world including his family and his lawyers, as well as access to correspondence;
Calling on the Moroccan authorities to investigate reports that Ali Aarass has been tortured or otherwise ill-treated, including on 10 July 2013 in Salé II prison and during his detention in the DST offices in Témara.
Never written an Amnesty International letter before? Full letter-writing guide here. Information about the urgent action network here.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 09 SEPTEMBER 2013 TO:
Minister of Justice and Liberties
Mustafa Ramid
Ministry of Justice and Liberties
Place El Mamounia – BP 1015
Rabat, Morocco
Fax: +212 537 73 47 25
Salutation: Your Excellency
Director of General Administration for Prison Administration and Reinsertion
Hafid Benhachem
Avenue Ibn Sina, Agdal – PB 123
Rabat, Morocco
Fax: +212 5 37 71 26 19
Salutation: Dear Sir
And copies to:
National Council for Human Rights
President Driss El Yazami
CNDH, Place Achouhada- BP 1341, 10 001, Rabat, Morocco
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Ali Aarrass has been in detention in Morocco since being forcibly returned from Spain on 14 December 2010. Spanish authorities extradited him to Morocco despite requests not to do so by the UN Human Rights Committee and by Amnesty International as he risked incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trial in Morocco (see UA 106/09 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR41/005/2010/en).
These early fears have unfortunately been confirmed by reports of subsequent human rights violations which the Moroccan authorities have not investigated to date.
After his extradition to Morocco, Ali Aarrass reported being held incommunicado and tortured for 12 days in a secret detention centre run by the General Directorate for the Surveillance of the Territory (Direction générale de la surveillance du territoire, DST) in Témara, near the capital, Rabat.
Moroccan authorities have repeatedly failed to investigate claims that Ali Aarrass was held incommunicado and tortured, in spite of Moroccan anti-torture legislation as well as Morocco’s international obligations under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Ali Aarrass told an investigative judge that his “confession” had been obtained under torture in a hearing on 8 February 2011, and his lawyers have lodged several complaints with the Moroccan authorities, but the latter have failed to open an investigation so far.
The only step taken in relation to claims of torture was a forensic medical examination ordered by the Rabat Crown Prosecutor and carried out on 8 December 2011. However, independent experts commissioned by Ali Aarrass’s defence deemed that the medical examination report, which concluded that Ali Aarrass bore no signs of torture, fell well short of international standards in forensic medical examinations of torture outlined in the Istanbul Protocol.
On 19 November 2011, the Salé annex of the Rabat Court of First Instance convicted Ali Aarrass of illegal use of weapons and participation in a group intending to commit acts of terrorism under Article 218 of Morocco’s Penal Code. The prosecution reportedly relied on this “confession” as the only evidence in his trial.
UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez and an independent forensic doctor visited Ali Aarrass in detention on 20 September 2012, and confirmed traces of torture which are compatible with Ali Aarrass’s claims of being beaten on the soles of the feet (a practice known as falaqa), electric shocks to the testicles, and prolonged suspension from the wrists, as well as cigarette burns.
Before extraditing him, Spanish authorities had suspended the court proceedings against Ali Aarrass after veteran anti-terrorism judge Baltazar Garzon reportedly found no evidence against him after a three-year investigation.
