Hidou Abdallah calls for reassuring Moroccans that human rights violations will not occur again

Former detainee Hidou Abdallah insisted on Wednesday in his testimony, held part of the second session of public hearings held by the Justice and Reconciliation Commission (IER), that past human rights violations should never occur again, so that Moroccans "can live in the respect of their rights and freedoms."

Arrested on August 13, 1983 in Mohammedia for being a member of the Islamic radical group called "group of 77" Hidou Abdallah stressed the need to protect individual and collective freedoms, particularly the freedom of speech, through a rigorous implementation of the law.

He also denounced tendencies to play down the importance of the public hearing sessions by reducing them to mere sessions for expressing a psychological state, stressing that issues brought up are related to the fields of policy and thought.

Hidou Abdellag further insisted on the right to harm-repair of all victims of past human rights abuses and of all the Moroccan society. He also called for the creation of an observatory to monitor human rights, stressing the need to involve the civil society and political actors to crafting a plan meant to avoid that past violations happen again.

M. Hidou, who titled his testimony "breaking the silence and letting wounds speak" recalled the context in which he was arrested and which was marred by the situation in Iran, the intervention of the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan, developments in the Palestinian issue "political arrest, political repression and a poor distribution of wealth" in Morocco.

Relating his detention conditions and plight, Hidou spoke about his enrolment since his youth in "the path of Islam," pointing out that he took part in meetings on the fiqh, sunnah and Hadith.

He added that he was concerned about the respect of the values and teachings of the Islamic religion which preached justice and choura as well as freeing people from subjection and political repression, while being convinced that "security obsession rejected this type of activity out of fear that the Iranian experience would recur."

Born in Rabat on November 10, 1963, Hidou Abdallah was arbitrarily detained on August 13, 1983 together with members of the Islamic group known as the "Group of 71." He was detained for six months in the secret detention center of "Derb Moulay Chrif" before being transferred with the group to the "Ghbila" prison.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and freed on July 21, 1994 by a royal grace, after serving 11 years in the prisons of Safi and Kenitra.

The "Group of 71," arrested as part of the « Marjaoui and Co » case included members of "Jihad," arrested on June 22, 1983 (in Hay Mouhamadi) and another group of Derb Kebir (July 3, 1983).

The members of the "Jihad" faction, created in February 1983, and considered as the military wing of "Islamic youth," had waived streamers and distributed leaflets in June 1983 calling for harming the State's supreme interests.