UN envoy meets Morocco ex-political prisoners

The UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, met former political prisoners belonging to a banned Islamist party during a visit to Morocco on Wednesday, the party's spokesman told AFP. "Mendez arrived at the headquarters of our movement early this afternoon (in Sale, Rabat's twin city). His team did not allow the media to attend the talks," Justice and Charity movement spokesman Hassan Bennajeh said. Bennajeh said the UN envoy was due to meet a dozen activists, "most of them former political prisoners who were victims of torture and violence." The movement, which refuses to recognise King Mohammed VI's official role as commander of the faithful, is officially banned but usually tolerated. It is considered one of the most influential Islamist groups in Morocco. Mendez earlier met Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid and Interior Minister Mohand Laenser. His week-long visit, at the invitation of the Moroccan government, is aimed at helping the authorities "uphold the rule of law (and) promote accountability for past abuses and allegations of torture and ill-treatment." He has already spent two days in the Western Sahara, annexed by Morocco in 1975 in a move never recognised by the international community. He visited the contested territory's largest prison in its main city Laayoune, which human rights groups are rarely given access to. The Laayoune branch of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights called on the UN, during its meeting with Mendez earlier this week, to set up a mechanism to monitor human rights abuses in the Western Sahara, AMDH said in a statement. The official MAP news agency, citing local sources, said Mendez had been able "to get to know the services and support that the prisoners enjoy." He had met "several prisoners" and "everything had been done to facilitate his mission," it added. Mendez is due to hold a press conference on Saturday at the end of his visit, which came as some 18 Moroccan NGOs voiced "deep concern" about a "regression" in the country's human rights record. Human rights groups have urged Morocco to probe claims that a group of opposition activists detained last week were tortured into confessing to assaulting police officers during a protest.