Thirty-six people are continued for “illegal entry on Moroccan soil”, “violence against agents of the public force”, “armed crowd” and “refusal to comply”.
Le Monde with AFP
The trial of 36 migrants, notably accused of having entered Morocco illegally before participating in the murderous attempt to win the Spanish enclave of Melilla, opened on Monday July 4 before being immediately postponed, according to their Lawyers. “We asked for the postponement to best prepare the file because other lawyers joined the defense,” a lawyers told AFP, Khalid Ameza.
These 36 migrants are prosecuted for “illegal entry on Moroccan soil”, “violence against agents of the public force”, “armed crowd” and “refusal to comply”. The next audience is scheduled for July 12 in Nador, a city in the north of Morocco bordering on the Spanish enclave.
the deadliest assessment ever recorded
The trial of a second group of 29 migrants – including a minor – is scheduled on July 13, also before a court of Nador, according to M e ameza. They are also prosecuted for “participation in a criminal band with a view to organizing and facilitating illegal immigration abroad”.
The 65 accused were one of the nearly 2,000 migrants in an irregular situation who tried to penetrate by force on June 24 in the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla, located in Moroccan territory. Mostly from Sudan, many of them go through Libya and Algeria – despite an officially closed border with Morocco – to arrive in the Cherifian kingdom.
This attempt to pass in force left 23 dead among migrants, according to Moroccan authorities, “at least 37”, according to NGOs. It is the deadliest assessment ever recorded during the numerous attempts of sub -Saharan migrants to enter Melilla and in the Spanish enclave close to Ceuta, which constitute the only land borders of the European Union with the African continent.
A new migratory tragedy at the gates of the European Union, which caused international outrage, with notably remarks of rare severity on the part of the UN, as well as the opening of two investigations in Spain and an information mission in Morocco.
If Morocco has criticized “very violent methods” of illegal immigrants and the “deliberate laxity” of Algeria in border control with Morocco, human rights NGOs have denounced the brutality of the forces of the ‘Moroccan order.