18 EL HASKI v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT It unfortunately goes without saying that all the defence’s objections concerning the above-mentioned violations occurring during the periods of police custody and judicial investigation, were also dismissed in all the sets of proceedings, without exception as far as we know. In this connection, no request for a medical opinion, in order to support the allegations of ill-treatment, was accepted. ...” 55. In the above-mentioned report, published on 24 June 2004 and entitled “Morocco/Western Sahara: Torture in the ‘anti-terrorism’ campaign - the case of Témara detention centre”, Amnesty International indicated in particular as follows: “... The sharp rise in reported cases of torture or ill-treatment in the context of ‘counterterrorism’ measures in Morocco/Western Sahara since 2002 has been well documented. Reports on the subject have been published in recent months by Amnesty International and other international human rights organizations, as well as by Moroccan human rights groups, including the Moroccan Human Rights Association (Association marocaine des droits humains, AMDH), and the Moroccan Human Rights Organization (Organisation marocaine des droits humains, OMDH). Human rights lawyers and victim support groups such as the Forum for Truth and Justice (Forum pour la vérité et la justice, FVJ), have spoken out about the violations, and the Moroccan and international press have highlighted the problem in numerous articles. The torture or ill-treatment is generally reported to take place in the custody of the security forces, particularly the Directorate for the Surveillance of the Territory (Direction de la surveillance du territoire, DST), and the police, where it is allegedly perpetrated in order to extract confessions or information, or to force the detainee to sign or thumb-print statements, the content of which they reject, deny or do not know. The scores of people allegedly tortured or ill-treated have been among hundreds of Islamists or presumed Islamists arrested and detained on suspicion of belonging to ‘criminal gangs’ or of involvement in planning, inciting or carrying out violent acts. The arrests, numbering some 2,000 according to official sources, began in 2002 when the authorities began a clampdown on individuals accused of being part of groupings of Islamist activists who, in the case of one particular group, were planning bomb attacks or who had reportedly been involved in a number of targeted killings of people whose behaviour they disapproved of. Since May 2003, many of those arrested have been accused in connection with the bomb attacks in Casablanca on 16 May 2003, which killed 45 people, including the 12 assailants. Scores have been sentenced to long prison sentences and over a dozen to the death penalty following trials in which evidence reportedly extracted by torture or ill-treatment has been used to obtain convictions. The detention centre of Témara, operated by the DST, is one of the main places where torture is reported to occur. Dozens of those arrested in the context of ‘counterterrorism’ measures have allegedly been subjected to torture or ill-treatment while being held there. Their detention at the centre has been both secret and unacknowledged, and consequently in breach of both Moroccan law and international human rights standards. ...” Amnesty International reported that many former prisoners from Témara had complained of being tortured or ill-treated during interrogation sessions, in an attempt to extract confessions or information from them or to force them to sign or thumb-print statements which they rejected or denied. It