CAT/C/68/D/817/2017
decided, in order to encourage him to be more disciplined, to allow him to spend his
outdoor time in the company of other inmates instead of spending it alone, as he had done
previously. Concerning his medical care, the General Delegation stated that the
complainant was closely monitored by the prison doctor; that he had received all necessary
medical assistance, either at the prison infirmary or at the public hospital, since the
beginning of his imprisonment; that he regularly received the medication prescribed for him,
as shown by his medical record; and that he followed a diet that the prison doctor had
recommended to him on 30 March 2017.
Complainant’s comments on the State party’s observations
6.1
On 31 May 2018, the complainant reiterated that his conditions of detention
unfortunately had not changed, despite the interim measures requested by the Committee.
With regard to the developments since 11 September 2017, the complainant refers to a
letter dated 12 September 2017 that he sent to both the Minister of Justice and the National
Human Rights Council to complain about the failure to assess his conditions of detention.
He stressed that the treatment inflicted on him clearly constituted arbitrary isolation for an
indefinite and prolonged period. He complained about the draconian restriction of his
contacts with his family, with whom he could speak by telephone for only 10 minutes a
week. He also asked to be placed in the group regime, under which he had been held before
16 October 2016, when he was being held at the Salé 2 prison.
6.2
On 20 February 2018, in response to the letter dated 7 November 2017 from the
General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration, the complainant’s counsel
inquired about: (a) the conditions of detention applicable to category A inmates; (b) the
differences between the conditions applied to the complainant and solitary confinement; (c)
the results of the reassessment of the complainant’s conditions of detention every four
months; and (d) the issue of whether his views had been taken into account. Despite that
request, no response has been received. The conditions of detention have not changed, and
the complainant has never been informed of the reasons for these conditions. No
reassessment of his situation seems to have been carried out, and none of his procedural
rights have been respected.
6.3
In response to requests from Amnesty International, the Organisation marocaine des
droits humains (Moroccan Human Rights Organization) visited the complainant. That
association made a list of his grievances and recommended that he be held in a prison
closer to his family, and that he be transferred to cell block B, so that he could be entitled to
go outdoors twice a day and contact his family, especially as he had served more than two
thirds of his sentence. His situation has not changed since then: he is still in solitary
confinement in the same wing of the Tiflet 2 prison, and his opportunities for contact with
his family have not improved. The recommendations of the Organisation marocaine des
droits humains have not been implemented. On 9 March 2018, the complainant’s sister
stated that she had been able to speak to him by telephone for 5 minutes and 15 seconds and
that the complainant was locked alone in his cell for 23 out of every 24 hours, with 1 hour
in an exercise yard, but without any contact with the other inmates, either in the area where
he was being held or outdoors. The conditions of detention remained difficult, and the
atmosphere, very tense. He slept on concrete without a mattress, his diet was very poor and
he had been asking for more than two weeks to see a doctor.
6.4
On 26 March 2018, one of his lawyers who had been able to visit the complainant
summarized the situation as follows: “In essence, the conditions of the complainant’s
detention have not changed. He remains in the same damp and freezing cell at the far end of
a wing with seven other detainees in pretrial detention at the other end. They do not talk to
him and he does not want to talk to them for fear that this will cause new problems, such as
suspicions of radicalization. Two of these detainees once started talking to him, and two
days later, they were transferred to another wing.”
6.5
In concrete terms, the complainant has the right to go outdoors once a day, to take a
shower once a week, to eat boiled vegetables at lunchtime − but he has to pay for all other
food − and to make two 5-minute telephone calls a week. He has no radio, but he can read.
He has no other activity. In 2017, the situation was calm. Nevertheless, when he
complained to a warden that other inmates had stolen his hair clipper, the warden was
GE.20-00011
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