Sunday, December 04, 2005

International Obervers ought to be present during the Saharawi trial in Aaiun

Paris, 03/12/2005 (SPS) Mr. Richard Sedillot, lawyer in Rouen (France), underlined Thursday, that "the trials of Saharawis must be internationalised, via medias coverage and via the introduction of international procedures", reported Algerian press agency, APS.

The internationalisation of the trials is "the condition that will make their struggle well known to the international community", considered Lawyer Sedillot in a report of his mission, publicised on Thursday by the French Association of the Friends of SADR (AARASD), after the presence of the French lawyer as an observer in the trial of Mr. Ahmed Hammia, who was brought before Moroccan court of Dakhla last August the 3rd 2005.

He Stressed that the dispatch of observers to attend trials of Saharawis is necessary to "inform the international community about the conditions in which the trials are organised", he estimated that it is necessary to "start procedures in France, or in any occidental country as well as before the competent international bodies", including the African Committee for the human and people’s rights.

"Even if this Committee can not adopt a constraining decision, it has got the ability to undertake an investigation and to write a report. We hope the recent African Court will start its mission", he noted adding that "a procedure can be started against the torturers, who are well known".

With regard to his presence to the trial of Ahmed Hammia, to the request of the AARASD, the lawyer stressed that this young man is brought before court "for having participated to a demonstration and committed acts of violence against the Moroccan forces of order while it is recognised that the demonstration was completely peaceful".

"Hammia was trying t know what was the fate of his father, who was abducted while the young man was still a baby. Moroccan Government has tried to buy his silence offering him money"

Hammia refused the sum and is still attempting to know the truth. His conditions of life and his family’s are very difficult. The Moroccan regime makes him "pay his desire to know the truth », he noted in his report.

On anther hand, he added that the "local political authorities, apparently informed about my arrival, did not allow the human rights activists to attend the audience and to meet me, hoping, may be that I would not go to the court. Everybody was forced to stay home because of an important deployment of the forces".

He also stressed that his meeting with the Moroccan defence of Hammia «was about to fail". "A police officer wearing civil clothes, pretending to be an employee of the hotel, told my (Moroccan) counterpart, that there was no Mr. Sedillot in the building. It was by pure coincidence that we were able to meet, because I was getting to the reception at the very moment when the Moroccan lawyer was about to leave. And thus we were able to talk about the dossier", the French lawyer testified adding that "pressures are apparently exercised but it seems that everything is done so as not to let the foreigners feel it".

He said that during the trial of the young Hammia "the public was exclusively composed of policemen, who were there to exercise another kind of pressures, certainly silent, but important". (SPS)





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?