A violent intervention by Moroccan occupation authorities has taken place against a group of Saharawis who were supporting the ex-political prisoner Sidi Mohamed Aloat, President of the Association of Disabled People in Western Sahara. He and a number of other Saharawis have been meeting regularly outside his house with the aim of getting him reinstated in his job in the department of public health, the job from which he was fired in 2005 for his incarceration on the grounds of his political position.

Sidi Mohamad was released on 25 March 2006, and since then has continued to demand his right to return to his job in the Hassan Mehdi hospital in El Aiún. He has been prevented from working by the Moroccan authorities, who are denying him his legitimate right to work.

 

Sidi Mohamad Aloat, his neighbours and others caught up in the incident told AdalaUK that the Moroccan police officers used stones and truncheons in their attack on Sidi Mohamad and those who were there in solidarity with him. They also threw stones at his neighbours’ houses, in order to stop people from looking out through their windows and doors.

A list of the victims of this intervention, compiled by AdalaUK, is below :

Izana Amidan was hit across the shoulders / Mahfoda Lafkir was hit on the head and across his shoulders and back / Azayna Ashtoki, was hit on the head / Salka Lafkir was hit on the neck, Akhdayja Azain was hit on the head, Hadham Faraik was hit in the face and across the shoulders, Mohamed Salem Bousola has bruises all over his body, Hamza Aloat was hit in the stomach.

AdalaUK condemns this inhumane treatment committed by the Moroccan police.

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