Title: "Stop looking for your son"
Description: "Since Morocco suffered the worst terrorist attack in its modern history on May 16, 2003, credible allegations have persisted that security officers routinely violate international and domestic laws in their treatment of persons suspected of links to terrorism. Plainclothes agents who show no identification or warrant detain suspects and do not explain the basis for the arrest. Authorities then hold them in a secret place of detention, which many detainees later identify as the headquarters of the domestic intelligence agency in the city of Témara. Many of the secret detainees are ill-treated or tortured under interrogation, and often held longer than the 12-day legal maximum allowed for garde à vue (prearraignment) detention, without any notification to their families of their whereabouts. They are then handed over to the police, who present them with a statement to sign, before they have seen a lawyer. These abuses undermine the right of the accused to a fair trial. This report, based on interviews with detainees and their relatives and lawyers, as well as news reports, documents a disturbing pattern of secret detentions and abuse. Many Moroccans use the terms 'abduction' to describe such detentions, although the detainee generally turns up in police custody within several weeks, unlike the 'disappearances' of earlier decades, when most victims were never seen again. Still, the pattern of abuses surrounding these detentions shows a flagrant disregard for the law, especially in light of the domestic legislation enacted under King Mohammed VI to safeguard against abuse. Morocco has conducted a significant process of acknowledging and making reparations for the serious human rights violations perpetrated during past decades. But if it is to turn the page on that grim chapter of its history, the authorities must also show political will to enforce Morocco's own laws on the detention of suspects and hold abusers accountable. The report contains a government response, received just before publication, to questions submitted by Human Rights Watch."--P. 4 cover.
Subjects: Terrorism, Law and legislation, Police misconduct, Detention of persons, Prevention
Places: Morocco