On Sunday 27th septembre , another Saharawi prisoner died in the Tiznit jail in Morocco. Bobakar Argun (detainee number 12276, who was 40 years old) was sentenced to 20 years for a common crime. According to a group of Saharawi prisoners who were there, Bobakar was helping the prison officers when he fell to the floor unconscious. The prison authorities called an ambulance to take him to hospital as there was no ambulance at the prison. The ambulance took several hours to arrive.

This was likely the cause of his death though we are currently waiting on the results of an autopy which ill be conducted at the hospital in Agadir (Morocco). This case raises the number of Saharawi prisoner deaths in Moroccan prisons to four this year, and 11 in total over the last few years.

Adala UK has published several reports about these cases, denouncing the terrible conditions of Moroccan prisons, including with regard to food supplies and hygiene.

Unfortunately, the UN report by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which was written following a visit to Morocco (9-18 December 2013) (A / HRC / 27/48 / Add.5) did not include visits to Saharawi prisoners in Moroccan prisons. The team also failed to visit cells or communal areas in the prisons.

Another Saharawi political prisoner, Abdul Jalil Laaroussi, fell unconscious on 26th September 2015 around 6 in the evening in Salé1 Prison in Morocco. According to a statement given by his family,
Abdul Jalil Laaroussi was unconscious for an hour and a half before the prison administration did any medical tests on him, and that these tests were not sufficient to determine what had happened to him.

Abdul Jalil Laaroussi was born in 1978 in El Aaiún, Western Sahara. He was detained on 12 November 2010 in Bojador (Western Sahara). According to his wife, Salma Aiwana, he suffered a severe haemorrhage from his nose and severe pain in his right knee, having been tortured with an iron bar during his arrest.

Adala UK asks the international community, in particular the UN, to urge the Moroccan authorities to maintain a minimum standard of security and hygiene for all prisoners in Moroccan prisons and to guarantee their access to medical treatment. We also continue to ask that all political prisoners be immediately and unconditionally released.

---