Rabat – The Criminal Chamber of the Salé Court of Appeal resumed its examination of the Gdeim Izik trial on Tuesday, in which 24 people have been accused of killing 11 Moroccan police officers in 2010, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the plaintiffs presented their cases against the defendant’s pleas.
In a report from the Maghreb Press Agency (MAP), during the hearings dated June 14 and 15, the defence for the accused presented explanations on the general context of the Gdeim Izik camp events back in 2010.
After reviewing the findings of the medical expert’s reports, the accused’s defense said it identified a number of contradictions. Chiefly was the inability to settle the accused’s torture allegations, thus preventing the Court from adopting the report as legitimate proof and excluding it from the trial file.
The defense added that the prosecution presented new evidence in support of the judicial police records, considered as mere information by the legislature. His included the minutes of telephone calls for which the legality of the source and the date of scheduling remains to be proven, leading to the exclusion of the evidence against them.
In reply to the pleadings of the defense for the accused, the Public Prosecutor’s Office explained that the telephone conversations were recorded on 12/10/2010, on the basis of a judicial order from the first president of the Laayoune Court of Appeal. It was made through the application by the Public Prosecutor’s Office pursuant of a request made by the judicial police in accordance with the law.
The Prosecutor General’s office also explained that the minutes of transcription and the transfer of the contents of the conversations were drawn up in accordance with the provisions of article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
National and international media as well as several international observers were present at the Gdim Izik trial, which is being held before the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Salé, following the decision of the Court of Cassation to quash the verdict pronounced against the defendants by the military court in 2013.
On February 17, 2013, the Military Court of Rabat pronounced sentences ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment against the accused, who are being prosecuted for “criminal gangs and violence on the police forces leading to their death with premeditation, mutilation of corpses and complicity.”
