Friends of Ali Aarrass
London Support Committee
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
Guy Trouveroy
Ambassador of Belgium in the UK,
17, Grosvenor Crescent
London SW1X 7EE
15 October 2015
By email to London@diplobel.fed.be and by post
Your Excellency,
We are writing to ask you to convey to your government our grave concern about the condition of Ali Aarrass, the dual Belgian/ Moroccan national imprisoned in Salé II prison since his conviction in November 2011 on evidence obtained by torture.
On 25 August 2015 M. Aarrass embarked on hunger strike in protest against continued bullying, humiliation and mistreatment at the hands of prison staff. Since then, his situation has become even worse, with Amnesty International issuing an Urgent Action in respect of reports from his family that he was severely beaten on 29 September by several men, some in green uniforms, others in plain clothes, during a cell search.
M. Aarrass is calling for his release, two years after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called on the Moroccan authorities to release him immediately, following its conclusion that he had been convicted solely on the basis of “confessions” extracted under torture. He is also protesting against the significant delays in the investigation carried out by the judicial authorities into his torture allegations, as well as the Court of Cassation’s failure to make a decision in his case nearly three years after submitting his appeal against his conviction to the court.
You will be aware that in September 2014 the Belgian Court of Appeal rejected your government’s appeal against the High Court’s ruling that it was obliged to offer diplomatic assistance to M. Aarrass, as a Belgian national, since the Moroccan government was not a party to the Hague Convention which precludes the provision of protection to dual nationals against the authorities of their other nationality, and because of the fundamental human rights engaged by M. Aarrass’ case – protection from inhuman or degrading treatment or torture and the right to physical and psychological integrity. It is highly regrettable that your government appears to have taken no effective action to protect its national M. Aarrass since the Court of Appeal’s ruling, and has instead appealed the Court’s ruling, while allowing him to remain incarcerated in intolerable conditions (according to authoritative rulings from UN human rights bodies).
We urge your government to intervene to protect M. Aarrass from further ill-treatment, and to ensure that he is treated in accordance with humanitarian norms. This would of course be entirely without prejudice to your legal position that you are under no binding obligation to do so – a position maintained by the minister M. Reynders in August 2013 when, during M. Aarrass’ almost fatal hunger and thirst strike, he was prevailed on to intervene with the Moroccan authorities.
Yours sincerely,
Kate Allen, Director, Amnesty International (UK)
Smita Bajaria, Solicitor
Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of East London
Professor Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC
Naima Bouteldja, Freelance journalist
Professor Bill Bowring, School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London
Professor Emeritus Lee Bridges, School of Law, University of Warwick
Victoria Brittain, Author and journalist
Dr Eddie Bruce-Jones, School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London
Louise Christian, Solicitor
Committee on the Administration of Justice, Belfast
Helen Curtis, Barrister
Liz Davies, Barrister
Liz Farrell, Solicitor
Liz Fekete, Director, Institute of Race Relations
Daniel Furner, Solicitor
Omar Geloo, Solicitor
Professor Avery Gordon, University of California Santa Barbara
Professor Penny Green, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London
Richard Harvey, Barrister
Trevor Hemmings, Researcher
Michael House, Barrister
Catriona Jarvis, former Judge Upper Tribunal
Professor Mark McGovern, Edge Hill University
Dr Thomas Macmanus, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London
Professor Philip Marfleet, University of East London
Piers Mostyn, Barrister
Terry Munyard, Barrister
Greg O’Ceallaigh, Barrister
Beth O’Reilly, Barrister
Peter Pelz, Director, Soul of Europe
Collin Prescod, Film maker, Chair, Institute of Race Relations
Revd. Donald Reeves, Director, Soul of Europe
David Renton, Barrister
Ronan Toal, Barrister
Anthony Vaughan, Barrister
Frances Webber, Barrister, Vice-chair, Institute of Race Relations
Marc Willers QC, Barrister
