Human Rights Monitoring
The treatment of Muslim terror suspects within alternative structures that legitimise human rights abuses is central to our concerns, as is the growing use of secret evidence. One European case we been involved in is that of Ali Aarrass, who received a 15-year sentence on terrorism charges after being extradited to Morocco from Spain despite an instructionfrom the UN Human Rights Committee to stay hisextradition. We have worked to assist the LondonCommittee to Support the Friends and Family of Ali Aarrass in galvanising the support of the human rights community in this country. Ali’s case raises vital principles for the security of European citizens with dual nationality. Despite his Belgian citizenship(he is a dual Belgian-Moroccan national), MPs and people of influence in Belgium were slow to take up the case, and there is a real sense that Belgian-Moroccan citizens, including parliamentarians, may fear that, by so doing, members of their own families in Morocco could be penalised. This is why it was important that Jeremy Corbyn MP tabled Early DayMotion 2552 calling on the British government to follow the lead of the Bar Human Rights Committee and make representations to the Moroccan government.The EDM, supported by 18 MPs, enjoyed cross-party support. This seems to have encouraged MPs in Belgium to present a similar motion to their parliament, which was subsequently supported by 16 parlimanetarians. IRR vice-chair Frances Webber attended a preliminary hearing of Ali’s appeal against conviction in the Rabat-Salé appeal court on 7 May, and weare assisting the London Committee in its attempts to send a bigger delegation to Rabat on 24 September.
Jeremy Corbyn on Ali Aarrass