The General Delegation of Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR), reacted to what it described as “unfounded allegations”, contained in the joint press release by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) , concerning the situation of the detainees of the events of Gdim Izig.
These detainees enjoy all the rights recognized by law at the level of the 07 penitentiary establishments where they are incarcerated, assures the DGAPR, in an update on the joint press release from HRW and AI.
The statement in question, continues the General Delegation, is “manifestly biased”, insofar as it only reproduces the unfounded allegations of the families of the detainees concerned and since it remains silent on the fate of the people they have killed and whose bodies they defiled and on that of their families and that it ignores the proven fact that they were only contract killers in the pay of the Algerian State.
These detainees are housed in naturally ventilated and lighted cells, benefit from family visits, collective catering provided by private companies, baths in warm water and lighted playgrounds, continues the DGAPR, noting that they have in their cell televisions broadcasting the sports channels of BeIN Sports, fixed telephone lines and the possibility of making purchases of various products at the prison canteens and can receive from them products and food on the occasion of religious festivals.
As for health care, they benefit from it at the prison health service and, if necessary, in extramural health establishments, the General Delegation further underlines, noting that these prisoners also enjoy their full right to pursue their studies and benefit for this from the means that the administrations of the penitentiaries concerned make available to them to prepare their examinations and their dissertations, which enables them to obtain university diplomas in prison.
They are treated with dignity and on the same footing as the entire prison population, insists the text.
However, for humanitarian reasons, they can benefit from other advantages, specifies the clarification, explaining that in terms of family visits, for example, since their relatives come from distant provinces to visit them, the administrations of the penitentiaries concerned grant them additional facilities in terms of duration and frequency of visits, number of visitors, etc., it is further specified.
Concerning, indicates the DGAPR, the so-called hunger strikes qualified as “continuous” by the press release, apart from the fact that these detainees only announce that they are engaging in them from time to time, they do not quite observe it, their only objective being to draw attention to their cases, win the sympathy of NGOs hostile to Morocco and thus deceive public opinion.
As for the supposed “placement in arbitrary isolation”, it is rather individual cells in which these detainees are housed at their request, knowing that those they occupy are adjacent, according to the same source.
As for the allegations of ill-treatment and torture that these detainees allegedly suffered according to the press release, they are totally unfounded, drawn directly from the false complaints that members of their families disseminate through various media and other means and transmit to their accomplices abroad in the context of disinformation and propaganda campaigns, notes the DGAPR.
Regarding the transfer requests made by these detainees to prisons located in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, they have not been satisfied because of the length of the sentence they are serving, knowing that 4 of them are incarcerated in penitentiaries located in these provinces and 4 others in two establishments located in a neighboring province, she notes.
Similarly, highlights the development, several of them benefit from transfer to the prisons of the Southern Provinces for fixed periods, and this because of the advanced age and/or the state of health of their relatives.