The Rabat Court of First Instance has handed down this Friday sentences of two years in prison and a fine of 15,000 dirhams—something less than 1,400 euros—to four Sahrawi students, whom it considers responsible for taking part in a support sit-in for the Sahrawi prisoners of the camp protest group of Gdeim Izik, held last October 12 in the Moroccan capital.
The young people sentenced are Ibrahim Babait, Salaedín Sabar, Huseín Chaihab and Mohamed Lamrabet. They were arrested by Moroccan security forces during a mobilization convened by family members of the prisoners of Gdeim Izik in front of the headquarters of the Delegación General de Administración Penitenciaria y Reinserción (DGAPR) in Rabat, according to the Sahrawi portal Equipe Media and the news agency SPS.
The families were calling for an improvement in prison conditions, adequate health care, and respect for the basic rights of detainees. However, the four students were detained "arbitrarily" for their participation in a "peaceful demonstration," SPS stresses, the official agency of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (RASD), administered by the Frente Polisario.
The hearing in which the sentence was handed down took place in a context of restrictions, since two Spanish international observers—representatives of the International Association of Lawyers for the Western Sahara (IAJUWS) and the Spanish Bar—were prevented from entering the court. They had traveled to Rabat to follow the trial and verify how the process was unfolding.
The Gdeim Izik camp brought together about 6,500 tents and was dismantled approximately a month after the protest began, driven by Sahrawis to denounce their precarious social and economic conditions in areas under Moroccan control—an episode considered by numerous analysts as the prelude to the so-called 'Arab Spring'.
The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975, despite the Frente Polisario's armed opposition. The armed conflict lasted until 1991, when both sides signed a ceasefire with the commitment to organize a self-determination referendum. However, disagreements over drawing up the electoral roll and over whether Moroccan settlers should or should not be included have blocked the consultation up to now.
According to SPS, Sahrawi activists denounce that in this case irregularities have occurred both in the arrests and in the judicial procedure, in violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence, and they interpret it as an attempt to "intimidate" those who support the independence of Western Sahara.