International
Morocco / Western Sahara: video captured of police violence
(New York) A video which appeared to capture the beating of two activists in Western Sahara by Moroccan police is genuine and should lead to a full investigation, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch was recently able to authenticate the video of the events of June 7, 2019 and confirm the details of the case.
The video shows police officers pulling the two activists out of a pickup truck and beating them and hitting them with batons. The video of the incident, which took place in Smara, in Western Sahara, was recorded by an unidentified person and put on line the following day. During the 46-second video, the 2 victims of blows do not seem armed and offer no resistance. Moroccan authorities have said recently that the incident is still under investigation. No officer has yet been punished, to the knowledge of Human Rights Watch. The government should publish its findings and hold those responsible to account.
To anyone who doubts that the Moroccan police force is using disproportionate violence against activists in Western Sahara, watch this video, said Eric Goldstein, Acting Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch . We look forward to the results of the investigation promised by the authorities.
Most of Western Sahara, a non-self-governing territory according to the United Nations, has been under de facto control of Morocco since the 1970s. The government considers it a Moroccan territory and rejects requests for a vote on it. 39 self-determination which would include optional independence. The international community does not recognize the de facto annexation of Moroccans.
Moroccan authorities restrict the rights of Sahrawis who openly defend self-determination. The police systematically prevent them from holding political demonstrations and they risk being arrested and prosecuted for abusive charges and unfair trials.
Video shows more than a dozen plainclothes police, many entering and exiting police cars, arresting four people who, as several sources confirmed to Human Rights Watch, were in a Toyota pickup truck in Road to the home of Salah Labsir, Sahrawi media activist, a few blocks away. They planned to celebrate his release after he served a four-year prison sentence. The police generally try to prevent or break up such gatherings.
Human Rights Watch has reports that the van rolled guests over to Labsirs' home that day, defying a police blockade. A second video filmed earlier today shows the same truck bypassing police barriers to drop passengers near the Labsirs house. The video ends with a policeman who seems to throw a stone at the person who is filming.
The two videos were published on Facebook and YouTube on June 7 and 8, respectively, on accounts linked to self-determination groups in Western Sahara. Human Rights Watch concluded that the videos indeed captured the events of Smara on June 7, based on analysis of the videos and interviews with 1 of the arrested and their relatives, and 1 of the lawyers of 2 others. .
A Moroccan court subsequently convicted one of the victims of the beatings arrested during the incident, Walid El Batal, a media activist on issues of Western Sahara affiliated with the Smara News site, and the ; sentenced to two years in prison on the basis of an independent incident in 2018..
In another case, a court sentenced the truck driver Salek Hammad, also known as Abdi, and sentenced him to five years in prison, also for unrelated charges. The second man seen beaten in the video, Laghzal Yahdhih, and the fourth passenger, an unidentified woman, were released later in the day and were not charged.
On November 8, two UN experts and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention wrote a joint letter to the Moroccan authorities asking for clarification on the imprisonment at El Batals and the violence he had suffered.
On February 14, 2020, the Moroccans mission to the United Nations in Geneva published a six-page response, which Human Rights Watch reviewed. He said the vehicle carrying El Batal, Abdi and Yahdhih crashed into a police barrier prior to their arrest, damaging a police car and injuring police, and that El Batal brandished a knife to threaten the police.
Human Rights Watch was unable to reach any of the four Sahrawis arrested during the incident to respond to these allegations. However, even if they were true, the large group of police officers appear to have used force beyond what was necessary to effect an arrest and eliminate any danger to themselves or to others. The UN Basic principles on the use of force and Firearms by law enforcement officials limit force when it is unavoidable and then requires that it be proportional to the gravity of the offense and the offense legitimate objective to be achieved.
In addition, in response to the UN investigation into the fact that the court did not investigate El Batals' allegations that the police had beaten him up. of his arrest, as the video shows, the Moroccan authorities said that El Batal had never raised such allegations during its preliminary and substantial hearings. In fact, the written judgments of both courts contain several references to allegations of police violence in El Batals. The documents mention that Mohammed Lahbib Rguibi, lawyer for El Batals, provided photos confirming the violence suffered by his client.
On February 19, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Moroccan Interdepartmental Delegation for Human Rights (DIDH) about the incident captured in the video and asked if the government had investigated this matter and taken action against the police involved. On February 25, the DIDH replied that the competent public prosecutor's office had opened an investigation before the receipt of the investigation and that the investigation was continuing.
Moroccan authorities are expected to publish the results of the investigation. In the past, Moroccan authorities have announced investigations into incidents in which human rights violations may have occurred, but have not released the results of the investigations.
Under the United Nations Convention on Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Morocco ratified in 2014, anyone who claims to have been subjected to torture in any territory under its jurisdiction has the right to complaining and having his case was promptly and impartially investigated by his competent authorities. The convention also requires states to ensure that any statement that is established to be made as a result of torture is not used as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture. as proof that the declaration has been made. The Moroccan Code of Criminal Procedure contains a similar provision.
Blocking a rally of activists, beating those who try to gain access to it, convicting people on the basis of apparently corrupt confessions while courts do not investigate allegations of torture capture many abuses faced by Sahrawis who openly oppose Moroccan rule, said Goldstein. The novelty is that some of them are documented on video and that an official investigation is underway.
Victim accounts
Human Rights Watch interviewed Laghzal Yahdhih, who said he was the second man seen dragged through the truck window in one of the videos. He said three police cars chased their van until one of them collided with it, forcing it to stop. The beatings started seconds later, he said.
Yadhih said a dozen plainclothes police, many of them armed with batons, hit the truck with their clubs and then, as the video shows, brutally shot El-Batal, then Yadhih through the trucks, opened the front passenger window and punched, kicked and punched them with batons on various parts of their bodies. Yahdhih said he had bruises on his head, torso and left shoulder.
Yahdhih said the police had taken the four people in the van to a police station where the police had insulted, slapped and punched them on various parts of the body, including while some of them were blindfolded and handcuffed to the chairs.
Yahdhih said he lost consciousness and woke up in a local hospital alongside Abdi, the driver, who he said also lost consciousness. After a doctor checked the men, they were sent back to the police station where they were beaten, photographed again, and forced to sign and take their fingerprints without reading them, said Yahdhih. The police released Yahdhih a few hours later and have not contacted him since.
Salek El Batal, Walids' father, confirmed that the first man in the video dragged from the window on the front passenger side is his son. He said he saw his son later in the day at Smara hospital with bruises on his face, back, thighs, hands and feet.
Court will later charge El Batal with rebellion, obstructing a highway and insulting police during a demonstration in Smara in March 2018, which took place 15 months before his arrest .
The video of the beatings briefly shows a policeman wrapping his arm around a man's shoulders, apparently pulling him towards a nearby parked police car. The man was identified as Abdi, the truck driver, by a relative, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from the Moroccan authorities. The same parent saw Abdi weeks after his arrest at El-Ayoun prison, and said he wore marks on his cheeks and hands, and stitches in his stitches. back of the head which, according to him, resulted from the beatings he had inflicted on the police officers while in police custody.
The last seconds of the video show the unidentified woman in traditional Sahrawi costume driving to another police car.
After arresting Walid El Batal on June 7, police transferred him to a prison in El-Ayoun, in Western Sahara, 200 kilometers west of Smara. The El-Ayoun Court of First Instance charged him with rebellion, obstructing a highway and insulting police during a demonstration in Smara on the 27th. March 2018.
Written judgments at trial and on appeal to El Batals are extremely imprecise in that they refer to the dates and places of his alleged offenses, making it difficult to determine whether they all occurred on March 27 2018 or if some of them are linked to his alleged resistance to arrest on June 7, 2019.
On October 9, 2019, the court found him guilty and sentenced to six years in prison. On November 12, a court of appeal reduced the sentence to 2 years. El Batal is in Bouizakarn prison in Morocco, 400 kilometers north of Smara.
His father and lawyer, Rguibi, said that during the trial at first instance and on appeal, El Batal told the court that the police beat him during the arrest and the interrogation. Rguibi said he provided snapshots of the video to the court as evidence.
However, neither the court of first instance opened an investigation into the alleged beatings nor rejected the confessions of El Batals on the grounds that they could no longer be regarded as voluntary. Written court judgments note that Batals claims to have been the victim of police violence but nonetheless relies heavily on his confession to justify their guilty verdict.
Video analysis
Human Rights Watch reviewed the two videos posted on Facebook on June 7 and YouTube on June 8. By matching several separate landmarks visible in the video with satellite images captured on July 2, 2019, Human Rights Watch confirmed that the two videos were recorded in the city of Smara in Western Sahara. These results are consistent with an analysis of the videos by the Human Rights Investigation Laboratory at the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley, which Human Rights Watch reviewed. The date and location of the recordings are consistent with the evidence collected by Human Rights Watch.
The 46-second video posted on YouTube on June 8 by a self-determination account in Western Sahara shows plainclothes police violently pulling two Sahrawi men out of the window on the front passenger side of a Toyota pickup truck and beating them seriously. The scene occurred on June 7, said one of the victims Human Rights Watch interviewed. Court documents also confirm that two of the passengers in the truck were arrested on the same day.
Human Rights Watch also reviewed one minute 7 seconds-video posted on Facebook by Smara News, a web platform for self-determination in Western Sahara, on June 7, which showed the same vehicle earlier in the day trying to escape the police who were surrounding a house in Smara where celebrations were held for welcome Lebsir back from prison. Human Rights Watch identified the exact location where this video was filmed by matching the buildings and roads visible in the video with satellite images captured on July 2, 2019 and confirmed that the neighborhood is only A few blocks from the intersection where the police intercepted them. vehicle later in the day and stopped its passengers.
The previous video shows the truck bypassing a barrier by driving on a sidewalk, making a U-turn across a patch of dirt, then stopping next to a police van just long enough for three of its occupants jump and run towards an apparent void in the barriers in front of the Labsirs' house.
The truck then takes off and drives in a direction that seems closed by a barrier. If the truck hit this barrier or damaged police vehicles and injured personnel, as claimed by the Moroccan authorities, it is not clear and it does not appear in the video. The filming, carried out from the roof of the building, stops while a person in civilian clothes, suspected of being a police officer, can be seen throwing a stone at the videographer.
Human Rights Watch reviewed a third video published on Facebook by Equipe Media, a collective of Western Sahara self-determination media activists, on June 7. The 44-second video recorded the same event from a different angle, also showing the police blockade in front of the Lebsirs house. This video was recorded from inside the Lebsirs house on the ground floor and captures the truck arriving at the house as well as the alleged plainclothes policeman throwing a stone at the videographer who was recording on the roof.
Smara News, Equipe Media and other local activist groups are key resources for sharing documentary videos of what is happening on the ground in Western Sahara at a time when non-Moroccans journalists face considerable obstacles to enter Western Sahara, and Morocco almost systematically refuses entry into the territory to pro-Sahrawi foreign activists.
Moroccan law on torture, forced confessions
The 2011 Moroccan constitution includes a ban on excessive force and says that torture, by any person and in any form, is a crime punishable by law.
The Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits the courts from admitting evidence obtained by the police into evidence if coercion or violence was used to obtain it. In practice, however, the courts regularly admit challenged confessions into evidence and base convictions on them without opening an investigation into the allegations of torture and other physical abuse.
What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: cgurgu@internetmarketingcompany.BizWebsite: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos
picture credit
to request, modification Contact us at Here or collaboration@support.exbulletin.com