June 24th, 2018.
Re: URGENT: Save the Life of Political Detainee Rabii al Ablak
CC: Amnesty International, The United Nations, Human Rights Watch
We are calling on you today, in a last ditched effort to please intercede to save the life of political detainee, Rabii Al Ablak who is currently being held at the Oukasha prison in Casablanca, along with the rest of the Rif Hirak leaders, ever since his arrest in May 28th of 2017. Rabii has entered, as of the date of this statement, his 27th day of yet another open-ended hunger strike, the third such strike on his record since his arbitrary arrest, making a total of 147 days, 14 of which were without even a drop of water.
His longest hunger strike lasted 48 days, the one preceding it was a total of 38 days, during which he nearly lost his life, was taken to hospital Moulay Yusuf where he was treated and kept over the entire weekend, however, no report was ever provided to him, his family and attorneys or the public detailing the status of his overall health. As such, nobody knows, to this day, the extent of the damage he sustained both to his vital organs and general body, as a result of the successive and long hunger strikes from one end, and the torture he underwent during the first weeks of his arrest. Rabii alleges that he was tortured for days at the hands of police officer Issam El Buzidi El Bushikhi, who tortured him for days, and forced him to sign blank statements under torture and threats, then handed him over to the National Division of the Judiciary Police who kept him at its headquarter offices in Casablanca for days under dire humanitarian conditions, while also torturing him, threatening him with rape, and a loaded gun. All these cruel, unfair and inhumane practices have been unambiguously banned by international law, yet continue to be the unceremonious hallmarks of the Moroccan regime, according to eyewitness accounts.
Rabii has entered yet another hunger strike, after having exhausted all other means to persuade the Moroccan Judicial system to afford him, and the rest of the Hirak leaders the right to present evidence and witnesses in their defense that is bound to unequivocally prove their innocence; a natural, internationally agreed-upon right to a Fair Trial guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and many other international treaties. So far, the Moroccan courts have confirmed its blatant incompetence and lack of commitment to justice, by failing to comply with the “independent and impartial” requirements, among many other violations to be detailed in a different document.
What is even more disconcerting, are the continuous official denials issued by the prison administration, ever since his first hunger strike, unremittingly repudiating Rabii is even on such a strike, even though he read a statement announcing it in open court, in the presence of the public, his co-defendants and their respective legal teams, as well as court officers and other officials. The Prison administration continues to try to attack Rabii’s credibility by denying he is undergoing a hunger strike and deliberately misleading the public by falsely claiming that he has been taking his full 3 meals/day, even as the effects of his hunger strike are unconcealed on his now-frail body. If anything, this goes to show the extent of the conspiracy against Rabii and the rest of the Hirak political detainees, when even the prison administration is unwilling to acknowledge he is in danger of losing his life any day now. The Moroccan regime continues to deny that Rabii and his cohorts are political prisoners, that they were tortured, that they are on hunger strike (when they were) and that their arrest and trials are nothing but a charade during which their rights guaranteed under international law are violated every single day.
Faced with such cruelty, we, the Moroccan Popular Movement (Hirak) Committee in the USA, see no other options but to beseech your intervention to stop a humanitarian disaster from happening. Rabii is at an increased risk of losing his life with each passing day, while the Moroccan regime altogether continues to show a devastating total lack of concern for his rights or his life, for that matter by the Moroccan regime altogether. This isn’t a political demand, this is a humanitarian plea for the life of another fellow human being that continues to wither as this regime does nothing to save it.
Please do not abandon Rabii and condemn him to a lonely, slow and painful death, protesting his innocence in a prison cell in Oukacha!
Please join the campaign by signing the petition today here.
Yours in Humanity,
