Carried away from their homeland with a recurrent lack of evidences, the Saharawi prisoners are often received in prison with severe beatings and torture, known as the “Welcome package”. According to the report, torture is a common practice to obtain confessions and to “re-educate” the prisoners. The violence and abuse perpetrated by the prison administration are not only physical but also psychological. “In the jails, guards encourage Moroccan prisoners to discriminate and persecute Saharawi political prisoners and participate actively themselves in all kinds of public humiliations”.

The violations of human rights also appear in the blatant lack of medical assistance provided to the captives. “On the September 30th, 2016, Houcein Zawi detained in El Arjat, asked to see a doctor due to intense pain in his knee (due to the torture he suffered) the prison ward told him he would have all the medical attention he needed after his death and he was brutally beaten.”

If medical services are denied to the Saharawi prisoners in many cases, they are inadequate in a lot of others, including wrong treatment and overmedication. “In one case a prisoner received 18 different medicaments simultaneously, among them 3 different antibiotics with contrary effects.”

The prisoners are not separated by categories. Therefore, prisoners diagnosed with contagious diseases stay together with non-infected prisoners just as the political prisoners are kept in the same cells as the ones imprisoned for criminal offense. For instance, “Saharawi Political prisoner Brahim Daoudi, whilst detained in Inzegan, was diagnosed with tuberculosis in the beginning of October 2014. When he returned from the hospital visit, he was sent to the same cell that he shared with other 72 prisoners, without a place to sleep and no medication”.

The report denounces the inhuman treatment of the prisoners who are deprived of decent detention facilities, often putting them in great danger. “Mr. Mohamed Balla, ex-prisoners of the Black Jail in El Aaiun, denounced that during his incarceration the cells were set on fire more than once due to the electrical cables”.

The provided food is neither substantial nor nourishing. “The typical prison diet consists of watered tea or coffee in the morning with a bit of bread and a watered soup, cuscus or rice on midday. Once a week there is some kind of meat with cuscus. In the evening the prisoners have to eat what is leftover if there is any.”

The Saharawi prisoners depend on their families who provide them with food or money to buy what they need. That is the case for bottled water – given there is no access to clean running water – which is charged. The task is not simple in practice given the long distances – sometimes over 1000 km – between their homeland in Western Sahara and the Moroccan prisons.

The low salaries and academic levels of the guards encourage the stealing of the prisoners’ belongings, including the items brought by the family, when they are allowed to do so. Visits and phone calls are arbitrarily prohibited by the prison administration when they decide so.

“The Daoudi family was prevented several times to deliver vegetables and fruit to Mr. Mbarek Daoudi, currently in Bouzakarn prison, his sons were insulted and ill-treated when they tried to deliver food.”

There seem to be no difference of treatment depending on the Saharawis status or occupations. “14 Saharawi Students and activists were detained in the first trimester of 2016 after their participation in peaceful protests in the university sites in Agadir and Marrakesh. They were arrested and suffered torture and ill treatment on the hands of the Moroccan police”. Saharawi journalists, constantly under surveillance, detained and tortured on a weekly basis, tell the same stories.

The Gdeim Izik group appears to endure a slightly different treatment. Widely covered by the media, the confrontations near Laayoune in 2010 and the famous Gdeim Izik trials created an enormous international pressure. Based on the report, this pressure allows the group of 21 prisoners to have certain “privileges” compared to other prisoners such as longer visiting time, access to books, better accommodation and some of the prisoners were studying. However, these privileges don’t prevent them from showing signs and scars of torture in court, in front of international observers. “Despite the appeal of the prisoners to the judge, he denied any medical expertise.”

Incarcerated in harsh conditions, the voice and complaints of the Saharawi political prisoners seem to remain unheard, with no reaction from the prison administrations, justice department or international community.

Mr. Iazza was born in 1966 in Tantan and detained in February 2008. He serves a 15 year sentences and is currently in Taroudant prison. Mohamed Yahya Elhafed Iazza is a human rights activist, member of CODESA and AMDH (Moroccan Human Rights Association) in Tantan, he suffers from several chronically diseases such as asthma, haemorrhoids and rheumatism.

He was subjected to ill treatment and torture. In April 2014, in spite of his severe health problems, the administration of Ait Melloul prison denied him any kind of medical assistance.

In April/May 2014 he did a 45-day long hunger strike and was transferred from Ait Melloul prison to Oudaya, Marrakesh. He had already done a 17-day hunger strike for the same reasons, and in 2008 he was on a hunger strike for over 30 days. He was put in an isolation cell several times during his incarceration in Inzegan Prison, and in 2009 during the night of his transfer to Ait Melloul he was tortured by more than 30 guards after that he entered anew in hunger strike.

He was kidnapped from his traditional Saharawi cloth shop on 29 Februart 2008 for participating in a peaceful demonstration in Tantan (Southern Morocco) and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. On the same day he was brought to the police headquarters in Tantan, where he was tortured for 3 days with other young Saharawis. A group of special police arrived for the torture session.
For 3 days his family was unaware of his whereabouts and his asthma medication was taken from him. Mr. Iazza identified some torturers such as Mustafa Kamour, the police chief, a police officer called Abed Jalil Elwaaziz and another called Dekir Ahmed.

He endured 3 days without food or water, without any blankets on the floor. They hung him upside down by his feet, then in the Dajaja position (like a roasted chicken), they beat him with batons, they threatened him and he was “watered” with urine and garbage.

In Ouyada Prison he was in a 5x4m cell with bunk beds with 26 other prisoners (common law prisoners), there was no appropriate ventilation, the cell was always full of smoke and very dirty, the food was scarce and lacked basic nutrients, the drinking water had to be bought. The current situation in Taroudant Prison is similar.