(Washington, DC) - The conviction andimprisonment of the Western Sahara human rights defender Naâma Asfari on August27, 2009, for "showing contempt toward a
public agent" shows that Moroccocontinues to punish peaceful activists who show their support for independencefor that region, Human Rights Watch said today. Asfari has been in
detention since a stop at a policecheckpoint on August 14 outside the city of Tantan in southern Moroccoescalated into a heated exchange of words, which Asfari says began when apolice officer ordered
him to remove a Western Sahara flag from his keychain.The Tantan Court of First Instance sentenced Asfari to four months inprison; a cousin who was with him during the incident, Ali
Roubiou, 21, ofTantan, received a two-month suspended sentence. It is Asfari's thirdconviction in three years. "Moroccan authorities keep finding new excuses to lockAsfari up, but it
seems that what lies behind it all is his peaceful activismon the Western Sahara," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africadirector at Human Rights Watch. In 2007, Asfari
was given a two-month suspended sentence,and in 2008, he was sent to jail for two months, in both cases on criminalcharges trials that seemed driven by the authorities' desire to punish him forhis
political activities. Asfari is the Paris-based co-chair of the Committee for theRespect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Western Sahara (CORELSO). He frequentlytravels to Morocco and the
Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, oftenaccompanying foreign delegations seeking to learn about the situation ofSahrawis. He was on such a mission when arrested. Morocco laid claim to
Western Sahara after Spainabandoned its control of the territory in 1975. Morocco has since exercised defacto sovereignty over the territory, although few countries have recognizedits sovereignty
de jure. A Sahrawiliberation movement known as the Polisario, and many Sahrawis, continue topress for a popular referendum to determine the region's future status, anoption Morocco once
accepted but now opposes. The city of Tantan is near to,but not part of, Western Sahara; its population includes many Sahrawis. In the August 14 episode, police stopped Asfari andRoubiou's
car near the entrance to Tantan to check their papers. Asfari toldHuman Rights Watch that a policeman noticed on Asfari's keychain the flag of theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) - an entity
that Morocco does notrecognize - and ordered him to remove "that thing." Asfari responded bysuggesting that the policeman remove "that thing," pointing to the Moroccanflag on his
uniform. An argument ensued, police reinforcements were called tothe scene, and Asfari and Roubiou were placed under arrest. Â Asfari contends that when arresting him, the police threwhim on
the ground, kicked him and broke his glasses. Roubiou alleges that thepolice beat Roubiou on his back. The court released Roubiou on August 16 pending histrial, but placed Asfari in
pretrial detention. Roubiou told Human Rights Watchthat he showed the bruises on his back from the beating to the prosecutor thatday. After his provisional release, he circulated photographs
purporting toshow those bruises. He also testified about the beating at his trial 11 dayslater, although the bruises had healed by then. While Asfari was in police custody, they asked him
tosign a written statement (procès verbal),purportedly containing his own words, in which Asfari admits to insulting andphysically attacking police agents while resisting
arrest. Asfari refused to sign the statement on the grounds thatit did not reflect what he had said to the police. He testified at his trialthat it was the police who had physically
assaulted him and not, as the writtenstatement suggests, the other way around. The police's written version alsoomitted his explanation that the incident began with the officer's objection tothe SADR
flag on his keychain. Asfari also told Human Rights Watch that when the policereturned his personal effects they had confiscated when arresting him, theygave him back everything except for
the keychain bearing the SADR flag. The prosecutor charged Asfari with "showing contempt"toward and assaulting civil servants (articles 263 and 267, respectively, ofthe penal
code). At their trial, both Asfari and Roubiou proclaimed theirinnocence and insisted that neither of them had assaulted any policeman. Although Asfari refused to sign the statement drafted
bythe police, it was introduced as evidence at his trial. Further evidence camefrom four policemen who testified at the trial that Asfari had assaulted themphysically and verbally. Since they
testified as victims rather than aswitnesses, the officers were not required to give sworn testimony. One produceda medical certificate stating that the injuries he sustained during theincident
required 25 days of rest. Â The court did not, as far as Human Rights Watch has beenable to determine, open an investigation into the allegations, repeated byAsfari and Roubiou at the trial,
that the police had assaulted them whenplacing them under arrest. Within 30 minutes after the three-hour trial, the judgeannounced the guilty verdict and sentences. It is not known whether
the two menwere convicted on both charges; the written verdict has not yet been issued.Both men have the right to appeal their convictions. In the meantime, Asfariremains in Tantan
prison. The trial was conducted under heavy security, althoughforeign observers were able to attend. On the morning of the trial, police inTantan intercepted several Sahrawi human rights
activists who had traveled fromEl-Ayoun to attend the proceedings, detaining them for the entire day, thenreleasing them without charge. These included Brahim Dahhan, Brahim Sabbar,Mohamed Mayara, and
Ahmed Sbaï, all of the Association of Sahrawi Victims ofGrave Human Rights Violations; Saltana Khaya of the Forum for the Future ofSahrawi Women; and Bachir Khadda, Hassan Dah and Sidi
Sbaï. Asfari told Human Rights Watch today that police wereopenly monitoring the Tantan home of his father, where some of the foreigntrial observers had spent the
night. While there have been noted improvements in theprotection of freedom of expression in Morocco over the last two decades,advocacy of independence for the disputed Western Sahara
continues to beillegal. Sahrawi human rights activists sympathetic to the cause ofindependence are subject to police surveillance, harassment, and, on occasion,politically motivated
prosecutions. "There is no question that a traffic stop led to a sharpexchange of words," said Whitson. "But from the confrontation over a flag on akeychain to the hastily
pronounced four-month prison term, the chain of eventssuggests that Naâma Asfari's pro-Sahrawi activism has led to his being inprison - yet again."
Dalila Mimouni's husband (R) carries her coffin before the funeral of his wife in Mdiq July 2, 2009. Dalila Mimouni, who contracted H1N1 flu during her pregnancy, on June 30 became ...
