Morocco: Human rights activist detained in Morocco: Zine El Abidine Erradi
On 5 April, Moroccan authorities arrested Zine El Abidine Erradi upon his arrival from France at Agadir airport in Morocco. He is a human rights defender with refugee status in France who was travelling to Morocco as an exceptional measure after the French authorities provided him with a travel document allowing him to go to Morocco without losing his refugee status in France.
UA: 76/18 Index: MDE 29/8256/2018 Morocco Date: 23 May 2018
URGENT ACTION
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST DETAINED IN MOROCCO
On 5 April, Moroccan authorities arrested Zine El Abidine Erradi upon his arrival from
France at Agadir airport in Morocco. He is a human rights defender with refugee status in
France who was travelling to Morocco as an exceptional measure after the French
authorities provided him with a travel document allowing him to go to Morocco without
losing his refugee status in France.
On 5 April, Moroccan authorities arrested Zine El Abidine Erradi, human rights activist from Sidi Ifni, Morocco, upon
his arrival from France in Morocco at Agadir-Al Massira airport. Zine El Abidine Erradi holds refugee status in France.
After his arrest, he was transferred to Sidi Ifni police station. On 6 April, the Public Prosecutor of the Court of Appeal
in Agadir confirmed his arrest on the basis of a warrant issued in absentia in December 2014 by the same court. He
is now held in Ait Melloul Local Prison, near Agadir, 160 kilometers far away from the southwestern city of Sidi Ifni,
where his family lives. According to his family, he was sleeping on a slab in a cell with 17 other detainees, but as of
24 May he received a mattress. Zine El Abidine Erradi has been on hunger strike from 9 to 19 April to protest against
his arbitrary detention. During the hunger strike he has been hospitalized twice.
Zine El Abidine Erradi was convicted in 2011 to 1 year prison term, and fined 5.000 dirhams (around US$522) for his
participation in the public protest of the 20 February movement in Sidi Ifni on trumped-up charges including violence
and insults to public officers and destroying public properties. But he has not served the sentence and the authorities
did not issue an arrest warrant until 2014. Zine El Abidine Erradi fled from Morocco in 2015 to claim asylum in Europe,
fearing prosecution because of his human rights work. In July 2017, he obtained his refugee status and 10 years
residence in France. On 5 April, he was travelling to Morocco as an exceptional measure to visit his family after his
father’s death, after the French authorities provided him on 27 March with a travel document allowing him to go to
Morocco without losing his refugee status in France.
Zine El Abidine Erradi was previously subjected to politically-motivated imprisonment in Morocco. He is a founding
member of the association Ifni Memory and Rights in Sidi Ifni and member of Moroccan Association for Human Rights
in Paris. Before leaving Morocco, he was arrested twice and prosecuted three times for his work in defense of human
rights.
Please write immediately in Arabic, French or your own language urging Moroccan authorities to:
Drop all charges against Zine El Abidine Erradi and immediately and unconditionally release him, as he is
held solely for his peaceful work in defense of human rights;
Ensure that, while detained, he has access to an independent health professional providing health care in
compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy, and informed consent;
Grant his safe return to France.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 04 JULY 2018 TO:
Director of General Administration for
Prison Administration and Reinsertion
Mohamed Saleh Tamek
Angle Avenue Arar et rue El-Jouz
Hay El Riyad, Rabat, Morocco
Fax: + 212 5 37 71 26 19
Salutation: Dear Sir
Minister of Justice
Mohammed Aujjar
Ministry of Justice and Liberties
Place El Mamounia – BP 1015
Rabat, Morocco
Fax: + 212 5 37 72 13 737
Twitter: @MincomMa
Salutation: Your Excellency
And copies to:
Minister of State for Human Rights
Mustapha Ramid
Inter-ministerial Delegation for Human
Rights
Avenue Ibn Sina et rue Oued El
Makhazine, Agdal, Rabat
Fax: +212 5 37 67 11 55
Email: contact@didh.gov.ma
Twitter: @didh_mar
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT ACTION
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST DETAINED IN MOROCCO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Zine El Abidine Erradi is a member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (Association marocaine des droits humains,
AMDH) in Paris a prominent human rights group, a co-founder of AMDH in Sidi Ifni as well as a founding member of the
association Ifni Memory and Rights in Sidi Ifni. A Moroccan court dissolved the association in 2015, partly on grounds that it
threatened Morocco’s “territorial integrity” by asserting the rights and cultural specificity of Sidi Ifni’s population. In 2011, he took
part in some actions in solidarity with the 20 February movement, which called for reform in Morocco, inspired by similar
movements for change in the region. The protests were mainly peaceful.
Zine El Abidine Erradi had been previously arrested two times in Morocco and had three different cases against him for his work
defending human rights.
After his first arrest in Sidi Ifni in 2008, in 2009 the Court of Appeal in Agadir convicted him to one year and a half of prison term,
which he served in full, and 6 months suspended prison term, in relation to his engagement in the popular movement in Sidi ifni
on charges including “violent and unauthorized demonstration”, “civil disobedience” and “insult to a government official”.
In October 2012, he was arrested again only days after meeting the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Méndez, in
Laayoune, and after he took part to a peaceful protest for employment in the port of Sidi Ifni. He reported being ill-treated in
police custody and coerced to sign the interrogation report without letting him read it.
The Court of First Instance in Tiznit subsequently convicted him on charges including participation in an unauthorized protest
and obstructing a public road during a previous protest and sentenced him to ten months prison term, reduced to six months on
appeal, which he served in full. In late 2015, the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal, restoring the initial prison sentence.
In a separate case in 2011, he was accused of violent protest relating to demonstrations in Sidi Ifni and convicted to 1 year
prison term and fined 5.000 dirhams (around US$ 522) on trumped-up charges including violence and insults to public officers
and destroying public properties. An arrest warrant was issued against him in absentia in December 2014 and the arrest was
enforced on 5 April 2018 upon his return to Morocco.
Zine El Abedine earlier this year requested for the French authorities to allow him to travel to Morocco without losing his refugee
status in France in order to visit his family, after his father died few weeks earlier. On 27 March, the French prefecture issued
the travel document, enabling him to go to Morocco for 3 months. However, the document does not guarantee him safety in
Morocco. For more information see Shadow of Impunity – Torture in Morocco, a report in which Zine El Abidine Erradi testified
his experience (https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde29/001/2015/en/).
Name: Zine El Abidine Erradi
m/f: m
UA: 76/18 Index: MDE 29/8256/2018 Issue Date: 23 May 2018