Prisoners' claims for re-trial legally unfounded, Moroccan justice ministry
Morocco, Judicial, 5/31/2005

The Moroccan justice ministry said the claims for re-trial and detention lifting of a group of prisoners who are observing a hunger strike are illegal as the sentences have been handed down by a judiciary body.

The ministry argues that the hunger strike by these prisoners does not have any link whatsoever with their imprisonment conditions but are rather related to objectives pursued to serve their own goals.

This came in a clarification sent to French daily "Le Monde" which run a story on May 25 quoting chairman of an association called "Ennasir" and secretary general of the Moroccan prison observatory and alleging that 800 prisoners are on hunger strike, including 150 who are in a critical state and 25 in a very serious situation.

The daily which did not publish the clarification claims that these Islamic radicals were tried and sentenced, not for facts but for ideas. They are actually blamed for their opinions and religious convictions, says the paper alleging that the trials only took into account the prosecutor's documents and the prosecution witnesses.

The source deplores the dissemination of such claims as harmful to the principles of the rule of law and the justice independence, recalling that appeal procedures shall only be lodged at judiciary bodies identified by the law and can in no way be referred through the media or any authority other the judiciary.

The use of pressure only seeks to deal a political blow to the rule of law and to the institutions that judged and condemned the authors of the dastardly terrorist acts in Casablanca of May 16, 2003.

Regarding the opening of an investigation on cases of violations and torture, the source says the cases have been probed and it was found that they concerned only a limited number.

The ministry also insists that findings of the judiciary probe conducted following the May attacks and the judiciary procedures established the responsibilities leading to judiciary decisions against those found guilty. Only some members of this group have gone on hunger strike, it says.

"Our judiciary and legal system, which is in total harmony with the oldest judiciary systems does not allow for the opening of a new investigation for the same defendants and for the same acts that were the object of final decisions," the clarification insists.

Recalling that the hunger-strikers claim the opening of a new legal action on what they call "the real instigators of the terrorist events of May 16, 2003, the ministry stresses that "on the legal and judiciary levels," the real instigators of these odious acts are actually those who were tried, including some who were found guilty, those who were acquitted in trials where they enjoyed all their rights: the right to defense, the right to appeal, public hearings and free arguments.

Therefore, out of 1,087 persons prosecuted for terrorist acts, 219 persons were acquitted, 89 others were handed down suspended sentences, and 525 were condemned to less than five years in prison.

By May 25, 2005, 281 persons were observing hunger strike while initially 638 persons started on May 2 the hunger strike, says the ministry stressing that no one of them stopped drinking water and that findings of investigations, information provided by the correctional centers administrations and medical reports cast doubts on the truthfulness of the strike, except for 64 prisoners.

Only 3 of them were admitted to the hospital as at May 25, the source goes on.

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