Rabat – The General Delegate of the Prisons and Reintegration Administration (DGAPR) has appointed a committee at the Ras Lma prison in Fez to investigate a recording made by detainee Nasser Zafzafi, leader of the “Hirak Rif” (Rif Mouvement).
In an audio recording, currently circulating on social media, Zefzafi recounted his experiences of inhumane treatment and torture during his arrest and incarceration. The Hirak Rif leader also condemned the burning of the Moroccan flag at a demonstration in Paris last weekend.
Zefzafi described the protestors who burned the flag as traitors. He also accused them of exploiting the suffering of others for their own ends. Zefzafi went on to warn his listeners that there are parties who will benefit from sowing strife in the name of the Rifians (people living in the Rif Region.)
The demonstration in Paris commemorated the death of Mouhcine Fikri, a fishmonger working in the informal sector in Al Hoceima. Fikri was crushed in a trash truck when he tried to retrieve his merchandise the authorities had confiscated.
Zefzafi then gave a shocking account of his arrest, saying that the police beat and humiliated him while taking him into custody. The Hirak Rif leader said that the police penetrated his anus with a stick and insulted him, having forced him to the ground to handcuff him.
In the recording, Zefzafi then explains how the police forced him to shout ‘Long live the King,” while one of the arresting officers hit Zefzafi in the face with his exposed penis.
An explanatory statement
In an explanatory statement released on October 31, the DGAPR said that the committee’s aim is to “determine the responsibilities for the administration of the penitentiary and its officials and take the necessary measures against anyone who has failed his professional duty, as stipulated by law, as well as against the detainee concerned.“
According to the statement, Zefzafi managed to make and release the recording by claiming “to communicate with his relatives in order to conduct a recording which has other purposes than maintaining family links.”
The DGAPR recounted an incident at the prison when, Zefzafi, among other detainees from the Hirak Rif movement, refused to comply with the prison staff’s orders to return to their cells.
According to the statement, the prisoners responded to the prison staff’s requests with violence.
In refusing to carry out the prison staff’s requests, the prisoner’s claimed that they were upholding the rights of a detainee who had not had access to his telephone rights that day.
The staff in question underwent medical examinations at the Hassan II University Hospital in Fez and filed complaints with the competent public prosecutor.
Meanwhile, the DGAPR declared that “to restore order and discipline within the institution, necessary disciplinary measures against these prisoners will be taken.”
After preliminary investigations of the leaked recording, the DGAPR has put three members of the Ras Lma Prison staff into temporary custody. The administration will not be pursuing a case against the prison director.
