Following the Gdim Izig trial, Amnesty International has published an article reacting to the verdict pronounced today by the Sale court. The organization states that the Moroccan court «marred by failure to adequately investigate torture claims». Following the verdict pronounced by the Moroccan court of Appeal in Sale, near Rabat, Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization focused on human rights reported in an article published on its official website that the court failed to investigate torture allegations. Speaking to the same source Heba Morayef, a North Africa research director at the Amnesty International announced that «during the trial most defendants told the court they were tortured into 'confessing' or incriminating themselves or others». The Amnesty observer argued that «if the court was serious about offering them (defendants) a fair trial, it would have conducted proper investigations into torture allegations by now, or excluded questionable evidence during the hearings». Today, the court of criminal appeal in Sale has sentenced 23 defendants to prison terms ranging from two years to life imprisonment for killing 11 members of security forces during the Gdim Izik riots that broke off in November 2010. Torture allegations Replying to the ruling, Heba Morayef declared that «the Failure of judicial authorities, over more than six years, to adequately investigate torture allegations in this case is a stain on today's verdict». Reported by trial observers, Amnesty indicates that «despite recent judicial reforms, Morocco's courts have repeatedly convicted defendants on the basis of their statements to police during interrogation without adequately investigating claims that interrogators used torture or other ill-treatment to force them to incriminate themselves». The court's verdict sentenced all of Al machdoufi Ettaki and Zayyou Sidi Abderrahman to two years in prison, 4 and a half years for El Bakkay Laarbi, 6 and a half years for Dich Eddafi, 20 years to Toubali Abdellah Tahlil Mohamed and Khadda Lbachir, 25 years for Dah Hassan Mohamed, Khouna Boubit, Faqir Mohamed, Haddi Mohamed Lamine and Zaoui Lahcen, and finally 30 years for Ennaama Asfari, Banga Shick, and Bouryal Mohamed. The court of appeals also sentenced Abhah Sidi Abdellah, Al Ismaili Ibrahim, Bani Mohamed, Mohamed Boutankiza Lbachir, Laaroussi Abdeljalil, Lahfawni Abdallah, Lamid Sidi Ahmed and Sbai Ahmed to life imprisonment. For the record, the Gdim Izik defendants were originally sentenced on the 17th of February 2013 by the military court of Rabat. The latter handed prison sentences from life imprisonment to 30 years against the 23 accused for taking the life of 11 law enforcement officers and injuring 70 civilians.
