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universal jurisdiction versus Moroccan civilian and military officials. This complaint is
being looked into by the famous Spanish Judge, Battazar Garzon.
188.
Morocco has seriously violated the provisions of the Fourth General Convention
on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflicts. These violations are serious as they
affect the responsibility of United Nations not only for ensuring international peace and
security and protection of the principles of justice, but also putting pressure on Morocco
to respect the human rights of the Western Sahara people.
d)
189.
Political Arrests
Morocco has
continued its campaign of excessive arrests and fabricated
allegations against Sahrawi human rights advocates, exposing them to legal pursuits
devoid of the simplest conditions of fair trial because of their stance on the issue of
Western Sahara and participation in peaceful protests demanding the right of the
Sahrawi people to self-determination.
190.
Although a group of Sahrawi political prisoners have been released after
protracted trials, there are still other groups under political detention in the various
Moroccan prisons among them the human rights activist Yahya Mohamed Hafez
Ea‟aza, member of the Human Rights Advocates Grouping CODESA who is serving a
15- year jail term with hard labour (see List No. 6 attached to this report).
191.
This year has witnessed hundreds of political arrests within the ranks of Sahrawi
civilians of different age groups, the majority of them against military invasion of the
Gdeim Izik Camp and demonstrations in El-Aaiun and Merza on 8 November 2010.
There were more than 500 male and female detainees and search warrants were
issued in the case of tens of Sahrawi citizens with legal pursuits of 176 male and female
detainees, 23 of them arraigned before a military court in Rabat, Morocco and 153
before the Court of the First Instance and the Court of Appeal in El-Aaiun.