She travelled to Morocco to be present at the trial against her husband, who is falsely changed by a Moroccan court with a series of charges. Today, French Claude Mangin was arrested too -and she is now threatened with expulsion from Morocco.
The French Claude Mangin and her husband Enaama Asfari are close friends of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara.
This morning, she was arrested by civilian clothed police in Morocco. So was her father, and Frédérique Lellouche from the French NGO L'Association contre la torture et pour l’abolition de la Peine de mort.
This text was released by the Sahrawi human rights organisation ASVDH Thursday night:
El-Ayoune - Western Sahara Thursday, April 24, 2008
French Activists arrested at Tan-Tan south of Morocco
Mrs. Claude MANGIN, wife of the Sahrawi activist Mr. Ennaama ASFARI, Mrs. Frédérique LELLOUCHE, mission Maghreb ACAT (Christians Action the Abolition of Torture), Mrs. Mureille BRUN and Mr. Pierre-Alain ROUSSEN, are visiting Morocco and Western Sahara. This French group, who arrived yesterday Wednesday, April 23 2008 to the town of Tan-Tan, was all the time by pursued by police officers. Today Thursday, April 24, 2008, the group was arrested at 10: 45 GMT, in front of Mr. Abdi ASFARI’s house (father of Mr. Ennaama ASFARI) and was taken to the police. Since then, this group is subjected to interrogation and has even been threatened to be expelled for supporting the ‘enemies of Morocco’. The Embassy of France in Rabat and French consulates in Agadir and Marrakech have been notified but until this group is still at the police station. Ms. LELLOUCHE was informed that the group may be released but Ms. Claude MANGIN will be deported because she is accused of supporting the ‘enemies of Morocco’. Likewise, Mr. ASFARI Abdi was also questioned by police and subjected to exhaustive questioning about the intentions of the French group’s visit to Tan-Tan and cities of Western Sahara. He was released after more than an hour of questioning.
Since 1975, three quarters of the territory of Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco. A majority of the population is still living in refugee camps in Algeria. Those who remained in their homeland are subjected to serious harassment from the Moroccan occupiers. For more than 40 years the Sahrawis have been waiting for the fullfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
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A 20 page long booklet on the Western Sahara conflict has been published by the Norwegian Refugee Council. Order a hard copy version of the publication "Occupied Country, Displaced People" here.
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Since 1975, three quarters of the territory of Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco. A majority of the population is still living in refugee camps in Algeria. Those who remained in their homeland are subjected to serious harassment from the Moroccan occupiers. For more than 40 years the Sahrawis have been waiting for the fullfilment of their legitimate right to self-determination.
