CCDH PRESIDENT CALLS FOR THE INTERVENTION OF BAN KI-MOON TO RELEASE SIDI MOULOUD AND ENSURE HIS RIGHT TO LIFE

CCDH President met Sidi Mouloud’s father and sent a letter to the UN Secretary General calling for intervention.

President of the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH), Mr. Ahmed Herzenni, met on 3 November 2010, at the headquarters of the Council, with the father and family members of Mr. Mostafa Salma Sidi Mouloud who was arbitrary arrested and whose fate and whereabouts are unknown. Mr. Sidi Mouloud’s father informed the Council on the situation and conditions of his son and submitted an official compliant requesting its intervention with all international human rights organizations.

Mr. Herzenni sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to express the Council’s “deep concerns about the situation of Mostafa Salma Sidi Mouloud, whose fate and whereabouts are still unknown”.

Mr. Herzenni confirmed that there “good reasons to believe that Mr. Sidi Mouloud has suffered severe human rights violations, including torture and ill-treatment, in an attempt to force him to deny his new opinion”. Worse still, he added, his “right to life is at stake since there are news that he was shot while trying to flee from detention”.

The Council pinned all its hopes on the intervention of the UNSG “to release Mr. Sidi Mouloud, guarantee that his rights to life and not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment are not infringed and allow him to return safely to his family and exert freely his right to opinion and expression”, Mr. Herzenni said.

It is to be noted that the Council received a letter from Mr. Mostafa Salma Sidi Mouloud in August 2010, in which he expressed fear of “possible retaliation by the leadership of the Polisario Front, once he is back to [his] family in the camps of Tindouf.”

The Council circulated, upon request of Mr. Sidi Mouloud, his letter and stressed that the fear of retaliation he expressed is to be taken seriously, given the deplorable state of human rights in the Camps of Tindouf, or even the illegal character of these camps under the international humanitarian law.

The Council urged, accordingly, all national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights and international human rights institutions and organizations to do their best so that Mr. Mostafa Salma Sidi Mouloud can return safely to his family in Tindouf and freely defend his opinions.