In yet another scene of systematic repression against the Sahrawi people, a Moroccan court has issued prison sentences against a group of Sahrawi students following their appearance before the occupation judge in Agadir. The students were prosecuted due to their peaceful activism and participation in university demonstrations.
According to sources from the Sahrawi student movement, the court sentenced Ibrahim Babit and Salah Eddine Essabar to one and a half months in prison, while Hafed Biraman and Nourdine Anflous received three months of suspended imprisonment.
Despite the repression, the Sahrawi students raised the victory sign and chanted revolutionary slogans while being transferred to the notorious Ait Melloul prison, reaffirming their unbreakable belief in the justice of their cause and their steadfast resistance to oppression.
Observers confirm that these verdicts form part of a systematic policy targeting Sahrawi students in Moroccan universities, where arbitrary arrests and politically motivated prosecutions have become a recurring practice against those expressing pro–self-determination views or solidarity with the Sahrawi people’s struggle.
The Sahrawi student movement expressed its full solidarity with the detained students, calling on the international community and human rights organizations to urgently intervene, stop these violations, and guarantee the students’ right to freedom, dignity, and education without discrimination.
These sentences add to a long record of trials and harassment targeting Sahrawi activists in Moroccan-controlled areas, as calls continue to grow for the release of all Sahrawi political prisoners and for an international investigation into the ongoing human rights violations in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
