At dawn on Saturday, 16 September, 18 of the 19 prisoners of the Gdeim Izik Group were arbitrarily transferred from prison without any prior notice. According to information from the families Naama Asfari was the only prisoner that remained in El Arjat prison, Abdel Jalil Laaroussi was taken to the Okacha prison in Casablanca and a group of six prisoners: Sidi Abdallahi Abbahah, Houcein Zawi, Abdallahi Lakfawni, Ahmed Sbaai and Mohamed Bourial were taken to Kenitra prison.
Eleven prisoners have been missing for more than 24 hours, neither families nor lawyers are informed of where they are.
This transfer takes place only a few weeks before the visit of the sub commission against torture of the United Nations to Morocco.
The Moroccan authorities try to make the contact between the UN sub commission and the Gdeim Izik group difficult and also weaken the group’s ability to defend their rights.
We recall that Morocco “hid” the prisoner Abdel Jalil Laaroussi, between criminal prisoners in 2014 when the working group on arbitrary detentions of the UN visited the prison in Salé, Rabat. Abdel Jalil Laaroussi had been violently tortured for months and with this maneuver Morocco prevented contact between the activist and the UN working group.
More than 24 hours after the transfer, Sidahmed Lemjeyid, El Bachir Khadda, Mohamed Lamin Haddi, Abdallahi Toubali, Mohamed Tahlil, Hassan Dah, Cheik Banga, Brahim Ismaili, Mohamed Bani, Mohamed Lefkir and Khouna Babeit are still missing.
