La Justicia de Marruecos confirma las penas impuestas en el macrojuicio a saharauis

The Moroccan Court of Cassation rejected all appeals lodged by the defence of the convicted Saharawis in the macro-trial on the incidents in the Gdeim Izik camp in 2010, in which eleven Moroccan agents were then killed.

The court thus confirmed the verdicts handed down in 2017 by the Court of Appeal of Salé (near Rabat) which at that time sentenced 23 Saharawi independence fighters to sentences ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment, of which 19 are now in prison.

Concerning the appeals lodged by the civil party, representing the victims' families, the Court of Cassation issued rulings ranging from the rejection of some appeals, the non-acceptance of several appeals and the extinction of other applications.

Efe found that the hearing, which lasted a quarter of an hour, took place in a calm atmosphere without any sittings of solidarity with the two parties to the dispute, contrary to what happened during the appeal phase.

In a joint statement issued on 9 November, the NGOs Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) called on the Court of Cassation to ensure that its ruling brings "justice" both for the victims and for the Sahrawi prisoners condemned in this mega trial.

Eleven agents of the Moroccan Gendarmerie and two Saharawi civilians were killed during the clashes that followed the dismantling in autumn 2010 of the Gdeim Izik camp, where some 25,000 Saharawis had settled to claim their social rights.