TITLE: MOROCCO HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994 AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DATE: FEBRUARY 1995 MOROCCO The Constitution of Morocco provides that the country shall be governed by constitutional monarchy with a representative Parliament and an independent judiciary. However, the ultimate authority rests with the King, who retains the discretion to terminate the tenure of any minister and dissolve Parliament to rule by decree. The current Parliament was formed in 1993 by a two-stage process: the election of 222 deputies by direct universal suffrage and selection of the remaining 111 deputies by labor organizations and other constituency groups. International observers found the direct elections to be generally fair with some irregularities. However, the second stage was marred by credible reports of widespread manipulation and fraud. When three major political parties refused to participate in the Government without a far-reaching shift in power in favor of the Parliament, the King appointed a government of technocrats who, with minor changes, remained in office in 1994. The security apparatus comprises several overlapping police and paramilitary organizations. The Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire, Surete Nationale, and the judicial police are departments of the Ministry of Interior and Information. The Gendarmerie Royale reports directly to the royal palace. Security force abuses continued in 1994, especially in cases involving perceived threats to state security. Morocco's mixed economy is based on agriculture, fishing, light industry, phosphate mining, tourism, and remittances from overseas workers, with illegal cannabis production a significant factor. Since the early 1980's, the Government has pursued an economic reform program that has contributed to generally strong economic growth, low inflation, and low fiscal and external deficits. The Government has embarked on a program of privatizing state-owned enterprises. In 1994 the Government made substantial progress on several human rights fronts. The King granted amnesty to 424 political prisoners; the Government began paying stipends to former inmates who survived incarceration at the notorious Tazmamart Prison; a 1934 law allowing the imprisonment of political opponents was abrogated; incidents of press censorship decreased; and the Deputy Ministry for Human Rights expanded its operations and continued dialogs with local and international human rights groups. However, several basic human rights problems remained unaddressed. Credible reports indicate that security forces frequently abused detainees and prisoners and caused the deaths of three persons in custody; state agents responsible for past and present human rights abuses were not held accountable by the weak and malleable judiciary or even subject to public investigation; many persons remain in prison for advocating independence for the Western Sahara; many young girls remain subject to exploitative domestic servitude; and the Government failed to make significant reforms in the manipulation-prone electoral system and continued to suspend the right to due process and freedom of speech and association. The ubiquitous nature of the Ministry of Interior and Information means that virtually all allegations of governmental human rights abuse involve its employees. The Ministry is responsible for authorizing associations and political parties; the conduct of elections, including cooperation with the United Nations in a referendum on the status of the Western Sahara; the oversight of the private press and publication of the official news agency releases; the direction of most security forces; the appointment and training of many local officials; the allocation of local and regional budgets; and the oversight of university campuses. Less formally, the Ministry exerts substantial pressure on the judicial system. In February comments to Parliament, reiterated in November, the Minister of Interior made clear that Ministry employees will not be held to answer for allegations of abuse brought by Parliament, other ministries, or nongovernmental organizations (NGO's). RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from: a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing Three deaths of persons in police custody may be reasonably attributed to security force brutality. On August 4, officers of the Surete Nationale in Khouribga, 75 miles southeast of Casablanca, arrested Siman Bouchta for selling produce without a permit. A few hours later, Bouchta was rushed to a hospital, reportedly for treatment of profuse bleeding, and he died shortly thereafter. His family has refused to accept his body without the performance of an autopsy. Requests for further information by nongovernmental human rights organizations have elicited no response from Moroccan authorities. According to witnesses, four police officers in Rabat beat Zerzouri Younes about the head in front of his parents' home on August 13. He died of his injuries after 4 days of hospitalization. Younes had no known political affiliations. He was described in a communique issued by the Moroccan Organization for Human Rights (OMDH) as emotionally unstable. The police arrested Brahim Belfaqir in the city of Sale on November 6 after his involvement in a fistfight. He died in police custody the next day. Authorities ruled the death a suicide, alleging that Belfaqir had taken an overdose of medication, but Belfaqir's family denied that he took any such medication. Belfaqir was not known to be politically active. An OMDH appeal to the Ministry of Justice failed to prompt a public investigation. In November the Minister of Interior responded to a question in Parliament, submitted in writing by a parliamentarian 2 weeks earlier, about Belfaqir's death. The Minister reportedly expressed surprise at the news of the death and promised an investigation. His response drew laughter from the parliamentarians. He has made no further comments on the case. In a fourth case, Mohammed Belqaidi, a former student activist in Fes, died on October 27, reportedly as a consequence of a general physical deterioration after receiving physical abuse perpetrated by guards while serving a prison term from 1988 to 1993. Belqaidi reportedly served his sentence in solitary confinement. A court proceeding brought by the family of Mustapha Hamzaoui, a political activist who died in jail in 1993 under suspicious circumstances, was postponed several times in 1994 and, according to human rights groups, is unlikely to go to trial. OMDH published a report in January that alleged 17 deaths took place from 1989 to 1993 under circumstances that strongly suggest the use of torture. The Government has not conducted a public inquest into any of these cases. b. Disappearance There were no reports of new disappearances. In September the Minister-Delegate for Human Rights announced that his office had begun a review of 50 to 60 alleged disappearances, some dating back several years. He added that approximately 30 of the dossiers presented strong prima facie cases of disappearance. At year's end, his office had not released any results of this review. Human rights organizations have published higher estimates of the number of persons who disappeared permanently after last being seen in the custody of security forces. Many of the additional disappeared persons are Sahrawis, the natives of Western Sahara, who publicly advocated independence for that territory. The Government has never directly acknowledged that Sahrawis have disappeared--even though it released some 300 Sahrawis in 1991 after periods of detention ranging up to 15 years. However, the King expressly excluded Sahrawi nationalists from the prisoner amnesty program announced in July, thus indirectly acknowledging that some of them remain imprisoned. Rashid Benhayoun, a resident of the Casablanca suburb of Mohamadia, disappeared on March 19 under circumstances implicating a powerful local figure with strong associations with the police. This figure should be a prime suspect but seems to have successfully prevailed upon police contacts to quash any investigation. In response to a request from OMDH, the Minister of Justice publicly agreed to investigate the disappearance. This rare public statement from the Minister was greeted enthusiastically by local human rights groups. At year's end, the Minister had not announced any further action. c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Although Morocco ratified the United Nations' Convention Against Torture in 1993, security forces continued to subject detainees to abuse--including the use of torture in cases involving state security. Reliable sources report that Ministry of Interior interogation methods in state security cases were modified in 1992. The guidelines proscribe the use of methods likely to leave visible marks or permanent disabilities. Hence, the most common methods include sleep deprivation, the chemical inducement of vomiting fits, and beatings under immobilizing restraint. A detainee alleging police abuse must sign an application for medical examination, naming the officers involved, and submit it to the court. Very few detainees take this step. In a case where evidence of abuse is strong, reliable reports suggest that the police typically offer to drop the underlying charges in exchange for a detainee's agreement to drop the allegation of abuse. In June a military tribunal tried several persons for smuggling guns to Muslim fundamentalists in Algeria. At trial, the defendants moved to exclude their confessions from evidence as having been obtained by torture. The trial court and an appeals court denied the motion without a hearing, despite strong circumstantial evidence of abuse. In May the authorities arrested seven teachers for participating in a rally advocating teaching the Berber language in public schools. All detainees alleged they were mistreated in detention and several, according to press accounts, bore physical marks attributable to abuse. Three defendants were convicted of posing a "threat to the sanctity of the State," but the court did not rule on the allegation of abuse. In cases that do not involve state security, witnesses report that individual police officers abuse detainees with impunity on an ad hoc basis. Harsh treatment continues after conviction, especially for prisoners serving sentences for state security crimes. Several political prisoners released in the July amnesty reported that they suffered years of abuse from their guards, including random assaults, deprivation of sleep, and prohibition of family visits. Prison guards have reportedly suspended inmates against walls as punishment for violating some prison rules. d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile Prison conditions are harsh. Eleven persons reportedly died in a 6-month period in one Casablanca prison due either to illnesses contracted from unhealthy conditions or lack of medical care for preexisting conditions. The Government, citing budgetary restraints, has not substantially implemented the reforms recommended by the Royal Consultative Council on Human Rights (CCDH), an advisory body whose members are handpicked by the King, regarding prison overcrowding, medical care, and nutrition. Prisoner hunger strikes, although fewer in number in 1994, were common, especially among Islamist prisoners. In a display of openness, the Government granted access by representatives of Amnesty International (AI) to its prisons. Legal provisions for due process have been revised extensively in recent years, but the authorities frequently ignore them. Although arrests usually take place in public, the police sometimes refuse to identify themselves and do not always obtain warrants. The law requires that a detainee be brought before a judge within 48 hours of arrest--extendable to 96 hours upon approval of the prosecutor--and informed of the pending charges. Incommunicado (garde-a-vue) detention is limited to 48 hours, with a one-time 24-hour extension at the prosecutor's discretion. An accused person must be brought to trial within 2 months of arrest, but prosecutors may order five additional extensions of pretrial detention of 2 months each. Detainees are denied counsel during the initial period of detention when abuse is most likely to take place. Counsel is allowed only as of the first cross-examination, but many cases are resolved without cross examination. Some members of the security forces, long accustomed to indefinite precharge access to detainees, continue to resist the new rules. Lawyers are not always informed of the date of detention and are thus unable to monitor compliance with the garde-a-vue detention limits. Although the trend towards compliance with the rules continued in 1994, there were several exceptions, especially in state security cases, the most publicized of which involved the gun-running and Berber speech cases (see Section 1.c.). The law provides for a limited system of bail, but it is rarely used. Nevertheless, the courts sometimes release defendants on their own recognizance. The law does not provide for habeas corpus or its equivalent. Under a separate code of military justice, military authorities may detain members of the military without warrants or public trial. In March the Minister-Delegate for Human Rights announced that the Government had begun making payments of 5,000 dirhams (about $550) per month to 28 former inmates who survived incarceration at the notorious Tazmamart Prison. He also acknowledged that 30 other prisoners had died there. In November the Minister-Delegate announced that the Government would issue death certificates to families of the deceased prisoners. All 58 former inmates had been sentenced, after mass trials, as accomplices in attempts on the King's life in 1971 and 1972. The typical member of the Tazmamart group was convicted of passive involvement in the plots--those convicted of active participation were executed--and sentenced to a 3-year prison term. Notwithstanding those sentences, the survivors each served 18 to 20 years in solitary confinement, with a complete absence of sanitary facilities and medical care. The Government offered no information on the prisoners to their families during their confinement, and even refused to confirm the existence of the detainees. The Government released the Tazmamart group without explanation in 1991, on condition that they do not publicly discuss the circumstances of their confinement. The former inmates have quietly sought redress with the assistance of Moroccan human rights groups, particularly the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH). No government official has been accused of misfeasance in connection with Tazmamart. No public investigation is underway nor is any known internal government investigation. In the June gun-running case (see Section 1.c), the authorities placed several suspects in incommunicado detention. They surfaced in a Rabat jail weeks later, after charges were brought. At their trial, the defendants moved for dismissal of the case for gross violation of the garde-a-vue detention limits. In contradiction to available evidence, the court found that the fugitives had spent most of the time after their disappearance--and before charges were brought--in flight from the authorities. It therefore ruled that the detention limits were not exceeded. The authorities held the defendants in the Berber language case (see Section 1.c.) in garde-a-vue detention for more than 2 weeks. Although the three convicted defendants received reduced sentences on appeal and were released in the July amnesty, the obvious violation of garde-a-vue limits was not subject to court ruling. By contrast, in investigating incidents of violent crime in August, the authorities evidently observed the due process rules. The incidents included a shooting at a Marrakech hotel which left two dead, and an attempted armored car holdup in Casablanca. In the aftermath of those events, police discovered several weapons caches, and investigations in foreign countries linked the suspects to terrorist groups abroad. Despite the national security implications of these discoveries, no evidence of illegal detention or physical abuse has surfaced. In fact, one of the principal suspects, after disparaging the judicial system in a court hearing, later withdrew a request for foreign counsel, stating that he had been treated fairly and represented professionally. Abdessalem Yassine, leader of the banned Islamist organization Justice and Charity, entered his fifth year of house arrest. Aside from rare meetings with his lawyers and family members, the authorities do not allow him to have visitors, nor have they filed formal charges against him. However, two members of the CCDH publicly acknowledged the illegality of Yassine's continued detention. Neither the Ministry of Justice nor the Deputy Ministry for Human Rights has initiated a review. There are no known instances of government-imposed exile. As part of the 1994 amnesty, the Government indicated that any citizen living abroad in self-imposed exile would be welcomed to return after taking an oath that acknowledged the legitimacy of the monarchy and the nation's claim to the Western Sahara. Several Moroccans living in Holland have been repatriated in this fashion, and in December the Government began to process claims from Moroccans living in France as well. e. Denial of Fair Public Trial In theory there is a single court system for all nonmilitary matters, but family matters such as marriage, divorce, child support and custody, and inheritance are adjudicated by judges trained in Islamic law, or Shari'a. Judges considering criminal cases or cases in nonfamily areas of civil law are generally trained in the French legal tradition. All judges appointed in recent years are alumni of the National Institute for Judicial Studies (INEJ) where they undergo 2 years of study heavily focused on human rights and the rule of law. The law does not distinguish political and security cases from common criminal cases. In general, detainees are arraigned before a court of first instance. If the infraction is minor and not contested, the judge may order the defendant released or impose a light sentence. If an investigation is required, the judge may release defendants on their own recognizance. Cases are often adjudicated on the basis of confessions obtained during incommunicado detention. Some of these confessions, according to reliable sources, are obtained under duress. All Moroccan courts are susceptible to extrajudicial pressures. Salaries paid to judges are modest; cash payments to unscrupulous judges are sometimes made in routine cases. A more subtle, but doubtless more profound, corruption derives from the judiciary's relationship with the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry, through its network of local officials, or caids, who serve in tandem with local elected officials, interacts regularly with local judges. Through this interaction, the caids transmit both general procedures for various types of cases and advice regarding particular cases as needed to the judges. Credible sources report that judges who expect enhanced remuneration and career progression do not stray far from that guidance. Attorneys report that newly appointed judges, notwithstanding their INEJ training, are even more willing to profit from this arrangement than their predecessors. In serious state security cases, communications between the Ministry of Interior and the court are more direct. In the gun-running case (see Section 1.c.), if the court had applied the due process rules, the defendants may have been acquitted--a result that might have encouraged local Islamists. To avoid that possibility, security officers were given virtually unlimited access to the suspects while they were in pretrial detention, and were able to extract confessions. The trial court cooperated in the Ministry's effort by retroactively adjusting the date of arrest to comport with the garde-a-vue detention limits--an adjustment that allowed the confessions to be admitted into evidence. In late 1993, the King appointed Idrissi Machichi as Minister of Justice. A legal scholar and teacher, Machichi has an international reputation for integrity. While there were no fundamental changes in the legal system, Machichi has instituted some significant reforms. For example, judges in drug trafficking cases are now assigned on the day of trial; traffickers are thus unable to approach corrupt trial judges to arrange a pretrial dismissal of charges. Machichi's presence in office is cited by virtually every part of the legal community as hope that the judicial system will eventually achieve the independence mandated by the Constitution. Aside from external pressures, the court system is also subject to resource constraints. Consequently, criminal defendants charged with less serious offenses often receive only cursory hearings, with judges relying on police reports to render decisions. Although the Government provides an attorney at public expense for serious crimes--i.e., when the offense has a maximum sentence of over 5 years--these attorneys often provide inadequate repesentation. In July the Government took two important steps to address the problem of political prisoners. First, the Parliament abrogated a 1935 decree which authorized the authorities to detain any person regarded as a "threat to the sanctity of the State." Originally promulgated during the French Protectorate to suppress nationalists, the decree had become the principal legal basis for jailing political opponents. Second, the King granted royal amnesty to 424 prisoners, all of whom were convicted under the 1935 decree. Of the freed prisoners, CCDH determined that 11 were political prisoners and 413 were criminals motivated by political concerns. Most of the group of 413 persons were convicted of crimes of violence or vandalism in mass trials following the 1984 civil disturbances in Tetouan, Casablanca, and Fes, as well as the 1990 disturbances in Fes and Tangier. However, several were imprisoned for exercising free speech and may also be considered political prisoners. Many of the prisoners granted amnesty had rejected government overtures for pardons in previous years because any pardon, under applicable law, would have been granted only after an admission of guilt. The released prisoners included human rights activist Ahmed Belaichi, imprisoned in 1992 for televised comments critical of the armed forces, and Islamist leader M'barek Missouni, imprisoned in 1991 for distributing Islamist tracts. More than 100 of those released are Islamists. The human rights community uniformly praised the abrogation of the 1935 decree and the amnesty as significant efforts to turn the page on a dark era in Moroccan history. OMDH estimates that some 110 non-Sahrawis remain in prison. Of these, some 60 are Islamists. Estimates of the number of persons imprisoned for advocating independence for the Western Sahara vary from the Government's position that none are held to the claims of some international NGO's that several hundred remain. f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home or Correspondence The Constitution states that the home is inviolable and that the police may not conduct a search without a warrant. The law stipulates that search warrants may be issued by a prosecutor for good cause. However, there continue to be reports of illegal searches of the homes and offices of suspected political activists. Government security services monitor the activities of certain persons and organizations, including their telephones and mail. Government informers also monitor activities on university campuses. Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including: a. Freedom of Speech and Press The Constitution provides for freedom of expression, but the law and tradition prohibit criticism on three topics: the monarchy, the Government's claim to the Western Sahara, and the sanctity of Islam. In 1994 a court sentenced union leader Ahmed Mlakgatt to 2 years for questioning the fairness of the 1993 legislative elections. Five residents of the coastal town of Bouznika were sentenced to 2 years for committing the same offense. In other cases, the courts sentenced three Berber activists from 1 to 2 years for displaying a banner calling for the teaching of Berber language courses in schools (see Section 1.c.), and 14 members of the "Unemployed Graduate Students Association" were sentenced from 1 to 2 years for demonstrating against high unemployment. The Government released Mlakgatt, the Bouznika residents, and the Berber activists in a royal amnesty in July. The students were freed prior to the amnesty. The Government significantly restricts press freedom, though the limits are not clearly defined. A 1958 decree gives the Government the authority to register and license domestic newspapers and journals. It uses this licensing power to prohibit the publication of materials deemed to cross the threshold of tolerable dissent. The authorities may seize offending publications and suspend the publisher's license. Article 55 of the Press Code empowers the Ministry of Interior to censor newspapers directly by ordering them not publish reports on specific issues. In 1994 the Government closed the independent Arabic tabloid, Asrar, without explanation. The paper circumvented the closure by reorganizing as a new periodical, Asda. Security officials prohibited the distribution of one issue of Nouvelles du Nord because it contained an article critical of the human rights situation in Tunisia. The Government tolerates satirical and often stinging editorials in the opposition parties' dailies. Particularly sharp editorials in 1994 charged a lack of political leadership regarding the recognition of Israel and a perceived capitulation to the West in opening a liaison office in Israel, both areas in which policy has been orchestrated by the Royal Palace. On the other hand, the Government restricted press coverage of the gun-smuggling case (see Section 1.c.). The Government owns the only television station receivable nationwide without a decoder or satellite dish antenna; it does not impede reception of foreign broadcasts. Satellite dishes are available, at prices that decreased dramatically in 1994, and make available a wide variety of foreign broadcasts. The sole private television station may be received in most urban areas with the rental of an inexpensive decoder. Northern residents may receive broadcasts from Spain with standard antennas. A great number of foreign news publications are available, particularly from Europe and the United States. The Government generally tolerates a broad spectrum of opinion in the foreign press. This was especially true in 1994 as the Government hosted several international events, including the conference on the General Agreeement on Tariffs and Trade and the Middle East Economic Summit, which attracted hundreds of foreign journalists. Despite the trend in recent years towards noninterference with the foreign press, the Government continued to prohibit the distribution of publications containing articles regarded as offensive. For example, the authorities seized the March 23 and April 28 editions of the French weekly Jeune Afrique because they contained articles respectively urging greater government support for a Moroccan national accused of murder in France, and reporting alleged contacts between the Polisario Front (a group seeking independence for the Western Sahara) and Algerian Islamists. The authorities temporarily blocked the distribution of the September 9 edition of the French daily Le Monde because it contained an interview in which a Moroccan Islamist questioned the King's status as a spiritual leader. The edition was allowed full distribution a few days later. Universities enjoy relative academic freedom. The Ministry of Interior controls the hiring of instructors, the curriculum in the Faculty of Law, and the physical plant, including the residences in all faculties.