Tortured after meetings with Norwegians

TV2 Nettavisen
5 July 2005

By Mari Bangstad

[translated by the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara]

The human rights activist Allal Latif (31) has supposedly been
mistreated by the police after meetings with the Norwegian Support
Committee for Western Sahara. The Norwegian government now asks for an
explanation.

Ronny Hansen, coordinator of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western
Sahara has received information that one of the leading human rights
activists in Western Sahara was mistreated after meetings with the
Norwegian activists.

- Interrogated regarding cooperation
- Allal Latif called us when he was arrested, and explained that he was
apprehended. He told that he was asked questions regarding our support
committee, and was told that he could say all that he knew about us to
the police, says Hansen to TV2 Nettavisen.

After Latif was set free from prison, Hansen has been told that he has
refused to talk about the Support Committee.

- Therefore he was tortured, Hansen says.
Allal Latif is professor in English language and literature.

- Allal was abducted from his own car after he had met with members of
the Norwegian delegation in Western Sahara capital Laayoune, tells
journalist and secretary-general Melainin Lakhal in the Saharawi
Journalist Association to TV2 Nettavisen.

Lakhal himself sought refuge from Western Sahara five years ago, after
having been added to a list of persons that the Moroccan authorities
wanted to arrest. Now, Melainin Lakhal coordinates activists from
Algeria.

Demands explanation
Tuesday, ambassador Arne Aasheim will present to the Moroccan
authorities the Norwegian government’s worries over the situation in
Western Sahara.

-We would like to raise the information that the delegation has given
regarding the reprisals that human rights activists have faced after
meeting the group, and request a thorough explanation of this from the
Moroccan authorities, confirms information advisor Eirik Bergesen in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to TV2 Nettavisen.

Ambassador Arne Aasheim will furthermore ask for an explanation as to
why the Norwegian delegation that was to attend a court proceeding
against human rights activists in Western Sahara from Tuesday onwards,
was on expelled from the Moroccan occupied area on Monday.

TV2 Nettavisen has earlier written how the human rights activist Aminatu
Haidar, was imprisoned and tortured after demonstrations against the
occupation authorities in Western Sahara.

http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/verden/article418546.ece

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Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara
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