Arrest of two journalists from Media Team in Gulimín | WSHRW
Laayoune, Friday 30 September, 2016,
Since Friday 2p.m. the young journalists Said Amidan and Brahim Laajail are missing.
The two journalists from Equipo Mediático are students in Agadir and were traveling aboard a bus of Supratours (subsidiary of the national company ONCF) that made the route between El Aaiún-Agadir.
The two young men were back to university to start the school year. Said is attending the second year of Private Law and Laajail, already graduated in Sociology, is attending the second year of Public Law.
At 2 pm, Said has sent a text message to Ahmed Ettanji, president of Equipo Mediático, to inform him that the Moroccan police arrested them on the bus, at the checkpoint south of Gulimín (south Morocco) and led them to the police headquarters in the city. When calling in response to Said ´s phone message, his phone rang unanswered.
The two activists are technicians of Media Team. Said films demonstrations and he is the director of documentaries; Brahim makes video editing and produces the video newspaper from Equipo Media.
The head of the DGST (National Territory General Surveillance Directorate) in Gulimín was officer in El Aaiún, his name is Mouloud Boukricha. It is likely that it was he who conducted the interrogations.
In Morocco the legal period of custody to instruction is 72 hours, during which the detainees can not communicate with their families or be assisted by a lawyer.
When contacted by telephone, police headquarters in Gulimín denied the presence of two journalists on its premises.
