An Account from Young Moroccan Political Prisoners: Rape and Torture in Police Custody

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Sep 3, 2012 Maghreb
[A collage of the six Moroccan activists charged for belonging to the February 20th Movement. Image from Mamfakinch.] [A collage of the six Moroccan activists charged for belonging to the February 20th Movement. Image from Mamfakinch.]

An Account from Young Moroccan Political Prisoners: Rape and Torture in Police Custody

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following report was originally published in French on Mamfakinch on 2 September 2012. It was subsequently translated into English. Both the English translation and original French version appear below.]

Following the 22 July protest against the high cost of living and the increase in prices, which was violently repressed and disbursed by riot police, six activists from the February 20th Movement were arrested. Their names are Samir Bradelly, Abderrahman Assal, Tarek Rouchdi, Youssef Oubella, Nour Essalam Kartachi, and Laïla Nassimi (Laila is on temporary release).

The prisoners are now "officially" accused of non-authorized assembly, insulting a public officer, assault and battery: accusations of guilt without evidence in order to conceal a political trial.

During their hearing before the judge on 31 August, they confirmed that they were subjected to very serious physical and moral aggression. Through their eyewitness accounts, the prisoners took us back to a black era in Morocco`s history: a time of political trials, admissions of guilt signed under torture, rape with objects inserted into the anus, insults, humiliations, fingernails and eyelashes pulled out…a history that would cause all proud Moroccans to blush with infinite shame. Present at this trial was the blogger, Larbi, who reports to us:

La preuve que les détenus ont subi des sévices physiques et psychi: un a été oblige de signer un pv s`engageant "a se retirer de #feb20 "!

— Larbi.org (@Larbi_org) 2 September  2012

In front of their families in tears and in the presence of all those flabbergasted by the testimonies, they gave a detailed account of their inhuman treatment from the moment of their arrests. Below is their story in an open letter addressed to the public at large, attesting to the details of what they experienced:

"After the protest that was repressed on 22 July 2012, which was intended to object to the high cost of living, increased prices, and political sentencing, we were kidnapped individually by ununiformed police. They hauled us away in a paddy wagon, blindfolded us, and began beating us with their fists, their feet, and their truncheons. Insults and humiliations were added on to all of this.

Once we got to the police station, they stripped us of all of our clothing and stuck hard objects into our anuses. They also ripped out our eyelashes, reports Nour Essalam Kartachi, in order to force us to cry, "long live the king."

Samir Bradelly also reported this to the judge, reminding him of the videos taken in Syria, where the people held in prisons were forced to say, "long live Bashar." Then during the interrogations, and to intimidate us, the police told us all the details of our lives before this point.

“After our refusal to sign the accusations, without having read them, they tried to tear off our fingernails with pliers,” describes Tarek Rouchdi. The police said to him “Mal Rabbek Kats7ab Rassek F l’Espagne? Hmazal Ma Wsalna Lih» [a series of swear words and "Do you think you`re in Spain? We`re not even at that point yet."]

They refused to have our wounds cared for, and in particular those of Samir Bradelly who had a deep wound on his head that required several stitches. He requested medical help several times, but in vain. And realizing that he would have to spend the night in this condition, he had to stay awake without resting his head on the concrete floor in order to avoid an infection.

After a hunger strike, the police finally agreed to take us to a small local hospital. The most seriously wounded, Samir, was taken care of only with an antiseptic (Betadine). As for the others, the doctor did nothing more than ask our names without caring for our injuries.

But our saga wasn`t over yet. Once we arrived at the Oukacha prison, several prisoners were enlisted in order to provoke us, aggress us, and harass us.

As for Laila, she was let go temporarily. She constantly had pain in her back because of how she was beaten:she reported having been violently struck on her chest with a truncheon and brutally hit.

In conclusion, we:

  • Reaffirm our commitment to all claims that led us to join the February 20th Movement in the first place.
  • Demand our immediate and unconditional freedom.
  • Affirm our unconditional solidarity with all prisoners of conscience.
  • Acknowledge with gratitude those who supported us or expressed solidarity with us
  • Invite all free activists to remain faithful to and continue protesting on the streets and to challenge this tightening noose of repression that is suffocating the masses in this country.

 

 

Témoignages des jeunes détenus politiques : Viol et torture dans les commissariats

Suite à la manifestation contre « La cherté de la vie et l’augmentation des prix » organisée le 22 juillet 2012 et qui a été réprimée et dispersée à coups de matraques, 6 militants du mouvement du 20 février furent arrêtés (cliquez sur le lien pour en savoir plus) : Samir Bradelly, Abderrahman Assal, Traek Rouchdi, Youssef Oubella, Nour Essalam Kartachi et Laïla Nassimi, cette dernière étant poursuivie en liberté provisoire.

Les détenus sont aujourd’hui poursuivis « officiellement » pour rassemblement non autorisé, outrage à agent public et pour coups et blessures. Inculpations sans fondements pour cacher un procès politique en premier lieu.

Lors de leur audience devant le juge le 31 août dernier, ils ont affirmé avoir subi des agressions physiques et morales très graves. A travers leurs témoignages, les détenus nous ramènent à une époque sombre de l’histoire du Maroc, époque des procès politiques et des PV signés sous la torture : Introduction d’objets dans leur anus, insulte, humiliation arrachage des ongles et des cils… une histoire à faire rougir de honte tout marocain digne et fier. Présent lors du procès le blogueur Larbi rapporte :

La preuve que les détenus ont subi des sévices physiques et psychi: un a été oblige de signerun pv s’engageant « a se retirer de #feb20 » !

— Larbi.org (@Larbi_org) Septembre 2, 2012

Devant leur familles en larmes et l’ensemble des présents abasourdis par de tels faits, ils ont relaté les détails du traitement inhumain subi depuis leur arrestation. Ci – dessous leur récit dans une lettre ouverte adressée à l’opinion publique agrémenté des détails de leur témoignages :

Après la manifestation réprimée du 22.07.2012 pour dénoncer la hausse des prix, la cherté de la vie et les détentions politiques, nous avons été kidnappés individuellement, par la police civile. Ils nous ont embarqué dans une fourgonnette, nous ont bandé les yeux et ont commencé à nous rouer de coups de poing, de pieds et de matraque. Tout cela était agrémenté d’humiliations et d’insultes.

Une fois arrivés au commissariat de police, ils nous ont dépouillés de nos vêtements et ont introduits des objets durs dans nos anus, ils ont également arraché nos cils, rapporte Nour Essalam Kartachi pour nous obliger à scander « Vive le Roi ». Samir Bradelly rapporte également au juge que cette scène lui a rappelé les vidéos de la Syrie où on leur demandait de dire « la ilaha illa bachar».

Ensuite, lors des interrogatoires et pour nous intimider, la police nous a raconté tous les détails de nos vies antérieures.

Après notre refus de signer le PV, sans l’avoir lu, ils ont essayé de nous arracher les ongles avec une tenaille rapporte Tarek Rouchdi. La police lui a dit : «Mal Rabbek Kats7ab Rassek F l’Espagne ?  Hmazal Ma Wsalna Lih», traduction « (juron) Te crois-tu en Espagne? On n’en est  pas encore là» 

Ils ont refusé de nous soigner, notamment Samir Bradelly qui avait une plaie profonde sur la tête, qui nécessitait plusieurs points de suture. Il a demandé de l’aide plusieurs fois mais en vain, il en a conclu qu’il allait passer la nuit ainsi, obligé de rester éveillé sans reposer sa tête sur le sol pour éviter une inflammation.

Après une grève de la faim, la police a enfin accepté à nous amener à un petit hôpital de quartier. Le plus gravement blessé, Samir a été soigné seulement avec de la Betadine. Pour les autres, le médecin s’est contenté de nous demander les noms sans administrer de soin.

Cependant, notre périple n’était pas terminé pour autant. Une fois arrivés au sein de la prison d’Oukacha, plusieurs prisonniers ont été enrôlés pour nous provoquer, nous agresser et nous harceler.

Laila quant à elle est poursuivie en état de liberté provisoire. Elle a constamment mal au dos à cause du tabassage, elle a rapporté avoir été matraquée sur sa poitrine et rouée de coups également.

A la fin nous :

  • Réaffirmons notre attachement à toutes nos revendications pour lesquelles nous sommes sortis en tant que militants du mouvement du 20 février.
  • Exigeons notre libération immédiate et sans conditions.
  • Affirmons notre solidarité inconditionnelle avec tous les détenus d’opinion.
  • Saluons ceux qui nous ont apporté leur soutien ou exprimé leur solidarité avec nous.
  • Invitons tous les militants libres de rester fidèles aux protestation dans la rue et à défier ce cordon de répression qui étouffe les masses populaires de ce pays.
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Jadaliyya Reports By :
Jadaliyya Reports

Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 

[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412