CHRONICLE OF THE TRIAL AGAINST THE GDEIM IZIK GROUP OF 24 (02/10/2013) | WSHRW
On February 10, 2013, the third oral session of the Trial against the GRUPO DE LO 24 DE GDEIM IZIK, which began on the 8th, was held at the Military Court of Rabat.
In the first session, different Preliminary Questions were raised by defense attorneys, arguing that they could lead to the nullity of part of the actions in the proceeding, these being rejected in their entirety by the Court. Among the issues of nullity raised were the systematic use of torture as a means to obtain the statements of the detainees, the violation of the minimum legal period established in the police detention, as well as the disappearance of the prisoners in the first five days of the arrest. detention, and the lack of competence of the Military Court to prosecute civilians for constituting a Court of Exception, which is expressly prohibited by the current Moroccan Constitution.
This first session continued with the reading by the Secretary of the Indictment in which the maximum penalty was requested for the accused in a generic way, and proceeding to the beginning of the first statement of the accused, ENNAMA ASFARI.
In the second session of the Trial, which lasted from nine in the morning to twenty-two thirty at night on February 9, five of the accused were questioned, Mr. Ennaama Asfari, Mr. Mohamed Tahlil , D. Hassan Dah, D. Elbachir Khadda, D. Etawbali Abdalahi.
In the early afternoon, one of the defendants fainted and fell to the ground, for which the session was interrupted, until the President agreed that he should be transferred to the outside of the Chamber for a medical examination, having to be hospitalized for forty-eight hours due to a heart condition, continuing the trial session despite the unanimous protest of the Defense Lawyers for considering essential the presence of the accused in the trial by virtue of the principle of unity of act
In the third session, which began at 10 am the following day, the interrogations of the defendants Mr. Ettaki Elmachdoufi, Mohamed Hadi, Brahim Ismaili, Mr. Banga Cheij, and Mohamed Elayoubi continued. That went on throughout the day. Late in the afternoon, at the request of the defendants, the Defenders asked the President to close the session since the defendants said they were exhausted because during the three days of trials they had been awakened and up at five in the morning to transfer them to the court, arriving at this one at six, and returning to prison at twenty-four hours. The President of the Court refused this request, and when the following defendants were called to testify, they refused for the reasons stated above,
All the defendants questioned have stated that they were subjected to serious torture, rape and humiliation during the detention process in gendarmerie and police centers, in the El Ayoun Court during the investigation phase, in the Military Court Room where the trial is held, when they were transferred to Rabat by military plane in November 2010, and to the Sale jail.
They ratified his innocence of the facts alleged by the accusation and the falsehood of the statements that appeared in the police reports, insisting that the arrest and
Their prosecution was due to police reasons, for their activism in defense of the human rights of the Saharawi People, and the Self-determination of the Saharawi People.
