MOROCCO AND WESTERN SAHARA: SAHRAWI ACTIVIST’S ARBITRARY DETENTION AND PROLONGED SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

Your Excellency,

I am concerned about Saharawi activist Mustapha Dihani who has been arbitrarily detained for one year under unfounded charges of “membership in a criminal gang” and terrorism, based solely on confessions he repudiated before the investigative judge. He also told the judge that he had been threatened and ill-treated in police custody. Mustapha is held in solitary confinement and banned from speaking to other prisoners.

Mustapha reported to his family that guards in Salé 2 prison repeatedly beat him and deprived him of food for several days during his first months of detention. Prison authorities delayed the administration of painkillers for four days and denied him access to an independent doctor. Mustapha’s lawyer told his family that, during a visit on April 20, Mustapha had marked physical weakness and severe psychological distress. When his family visited him on August 16, Mustapha was experiencing severe trembling, recurrent panic attacks, acute chest pain, and nerve pain in his neck. He also expressed an intense fear of death, which he attributed to provocations by prison staff. His calls with his family were cut off when he tried to describe his ill treatment.

I urge you to ensure the immediate release of Mustapha Dihani. In the meantime, I call on you to end his solitary confinement and ensure that an effective investigation is opened into his allegations of ill-treatment in detention. Pending his release, he must be granted access to adequate health care and held in conditions that meet international standards.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]