HRW calls on Morocco to release civilians held pending military trials

Human Rights Watch yesterday called on the Moroccan authorities to release two civilians who have been held for unreasonably long periods awaiting military trials, the Anadolu Agency reported.

In a letter addressed to Moroccan Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid and Minister in charge of the management of National Defence, Abdul Latif Odaa, the human rights organisation’s Middle East and North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said: “Morocco can take another positive step by removing Mbarek Daoudi and Mamadou Traore from military court jurisdiction and resolving their cases.”

The group called on the authorities to clarify the charges against the two men, if any, and to refer their cases to civilian courts for consideration without delay.

Moroccan Military Court has recently announced itself unable to try Daoudi in some of the charges against him including that of possession and attempting to manufacture a weapon and referred his case to a civilian court.

On 9 March, a civilian court in Guelmine convicted Daoudi of a misdemeanour and sentenced him to three months in prison. Though he has already spent 18 months in prison awaiting trial, Daoudi was not released.

Mamadou Traore, a young Malian migrant, has been held for 32 months. He is accused of throwing a stone that caused the death of an Auxiliary Forces agent near a border crossing.

Human Rights Watch requested clarification of the judicial status of Daoudi and Traore, who are in Salé prison.

Head of the national Human Rights Committee, Tawfiq Bardege told the Anadolu Agency that his country “no longer tries civilians before military courts, especially after the passage of a new law which prohibits trying civilians before military courts”.

Bardege explained: “Mbarek Daoudi is currently tried before civilian courts and that he has not been released yet because he appealed his sentence.”

The Moroccan official said he had “no information about the Malian migrant”.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Morocco is party, requires that “anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorised by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release.”

“Morocco has made clear with its new law that civilians shouldn’t be tried before military courts,” HRW’s Whitson said. “It should quickly resolve the cases of the two men who have been sitting in prison for many months under the old system without even beginning their trials.”