CAT/C/68/D/817/2017
2.9
Having submitted an application to the Human Rights Committee, 5 the complainant
submitted a complaint to the Committee against Torture, which found a violation of articles
2, 11, 12, 13 and 15 of the Convention.6 The subsequent investigation, however, has fallen
far short of due process standards. As a result of the decision, Morocco reopened an
investigation into the complainant’s allegations of torture.
2.10 In its comments addressed to the Human Rights Committee, Spain stated that, at a
meeting held on 17 November 2015, the Minister of Justice had submitted to it a decision
of 20 October 2015 issued by Pretrial Division No. 4. This decision reportedly showed that
the investigating judge ordered a medical examination, visited the police premises where
the complainant was detained and took statements from police officers, nurses, doctors and
persons detained during the same period as the complainant, as well as from third parties.
The decision concluded by dismissing the allegations. As the complainant was not
considered a party to the proceedings, he was not able to appeal. The investigation is
therefore definitively closed.
2.11 Throughout his detention, the complainant has been subjected to threats, pressure,
harassment, unjustified searches and beatings, among other violations, both by prison staff
and by other inmates. He has been arbitrarily placed in isolation and deprived of sleep and
essential medical care. His right to correspond has been restricted and even denied, and he
is under surveillance even when he meets with his counsel. His legitimate grievances have
never been taken into consideration; he has not been allowed to receive visits from his
friends, his Belgian counsel, the Consul of Belgium or the Consul of Spain; and his
requests for information have gone unanswered.
2.12 To protest his conditions of detention and the acts of intimidation he has suffered in
relation to the complaints he has submitted at the national and international levels, the
complainant has gone on several hunger strikes. The longest one, in 2015, lasted for 72
days and left the complainant in an alarming state of health, as a result of which he was
hospitalized for several days.
2.13 At a time when he was again encountering significant problems in detention, the
complainant was transferred, on 10 October 2016, to the Tiflet 2 prison, without prior
notification to him or his family. He was held in solitary confinement under particularly
harsh conditions, without being notified of any decision. The complainant is still being held
in conditions that, given his history, amount to torture or, at the very least, to cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment. His physical and psychological health are very seriously
endangered. The Moroccan authorities have been duly informed by the complainant’s
counsel and family of the consequences suffered by the complainant and have been called
upon to house him in a regular cell, as they had done previously.
2.14 On 17 February 2017, the Minister of Justice merely stated that the complainant was
not being held in solitary confinement as provided for in article 32 of Act No. 23/98 of 25
August 1999 on the organization and functioning of prison facilities and that the
complainant had the use of an individual room, opportunities for recreation and access to a
shower, in accordance with the law.
2.15 The National Human Rights Council of Morocco visited the Tiflet 2 prison twice,
but did not react to the urgings of the complainant’s counsel. Since his transfer to the Tiflet
2 prison, the complainant has lost 18 kg due to the dramatic deterioration in his conditions
of detention.
2.16 Lastly, the complainant states that he has not submitted the complaint to any other
procedure of international investigation or settlement, in accordance with article 22 (5) (a)
of the Convention.
The complaint
3.1
The complainant claims a violation by the State party of articles 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14
and 16 of the Convention.
5
6
GE.20-00011
See footnote 2.
Aarrass v. Morocco (CAT/C/52/D/477/2011), para. 11.
3