Ali Salem
On July 18, 2005, he was detained in El Aaiun airport while returning from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, after touring Switzerland, Italy and Spain on conferences supporting the independence of Western Sahara. The magazine Maroc Hebdo International put him in its July 2005 cover with the heading "Public Enemy Nº 1". The European parliament called for his "immediate release" in a resolution on October 27. On December 14, Ali Salem Tamek was sentenced to 8 months in prison by a Moroccan court in El-Aaiún, being accused of incitement to trouble the public order during the Independence Intifada. Both before and after the trial, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued reports with concerns that Ali Salem Tamek and other Sahrawi activists were not getting fair trials, and may be prisoners of conscience. He was released again by a general royal pardon in April 2006.