Morocco’s General Delegation for Prison Administration denied on Tuesday recent claims by Amnesty International regarding torture and human rights violations against a prisoner detained in connection with the Gdim Izik Incidents.
The country’s prison authority said in a statement that the prisoner, detained at the local prison of Tiflet 2 over Gdim Izik case which dates back to 2010, “has never been subjected to any assault by the prison staff.”
“Like all inmates, he enjoys all the rights stipulated in the law regulating prisons.”
The Gdeim Izik incident involved a protest camp, known as Gdeim Izik, which was set up by a group of people demanding greater economic and social opportunities.
Moroccan security forces dismantled the protest camp in November 2010, which lead to clashes with Polisario members, who killed 12 police officers.
The Administration said that Amnesty International is “spreading a set of lies by seizing the propaganda of the enemies of Morocco’s territorial integrity, and trying to turn it into facts without making any effort to verify its authenticity.”
In addition, it described the NGO’s practices as a “blatant violation of the basics of the human rights work that the organization claims to practice.”
In its recently published report on “the state of the world’s human rights,” Amnesty International claimed that “torture and other ill-treatment continued with impunity both inside and out of prisons, particularly against Sahrawi activists.”
