Former rights abuse victim relates his plight in several prisons

As part of Wednesday's public hearing session held in this central Moroccan city, Mohamed Fadili, related the sufferings of his painful journey through several detention centers in the Kingdom.

The man was speaking before a public of around 400 persons, as part of the 4th session of hearings held by the Justice and Reconciliation Commission, set up in January 2004 to seek out of court settlement of human rights abuses committed in Morocco between 1956 and 1999.

He pointed out that the hardest part was his detention in the center of the Anfa airport (Casablanca) where the only food was lentils and wheat. "As soon as we were seated in the plane, we were blindfolded and handcuffed and we reached destination, we were treated like animals, beaten and undressed."

He also recounted how his detention in another location in Tagounit, he lost two of his inmates as a result of the hard conditions and mistreatment.

During a rainy night in Agdaz, he recollects, water and mud leaked and invaded the cell, but the guards only intervened in the following morning.

Fadili, a hairdresser, was arrested in 1973 because of his adhesion to the National Union of Popular forces (UNFP, which split into Istiqlal and USFP parties). He was detained for one month in the prison of Guelmima, before being transferred for 24 hours successively to Boulemane Dadès, the Corbis detention center and Derb Moulay Cherif in Casablanca. Now 76 years old, he was also incarcerated in Tagounit and Agdez.

He was released on August 8, 1977 without trial.