Rabat – Head of Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) Abdellatif Hammouchi has called on all police districts and prefectures in Morocco to make their preventive detention centers more humane.
According to converging reports, the DGSN chief sent a memo detailing several directives and guidelines to make detention more humane and ensure that individuals under it are not stripped of their rights while preliminary investigations are conducted.
Preventive detention refers to the practice of incarcerating individuals before their trial on the basis that their release could result in the committing of additional crimes.
The DGSN instructions said all detention centers must meet health and safety conditions by implementing proper hygiene and ventilation measures, as well as proper emergency exits.
Additionally, the memo detailed that female defendants must be guarded by female officers at all times, and that detained minors must be separated from their adult counterparts in the interest of protecting the safety of disadvantaged detainees.
Detainees with decreased mobility must also receive equal access to all their freedoms, as well as various DGSN services, it added.
Hammouchi’s memo also outlined that all guards in preventive detention facilities must attend special training sessions and be provided pocket books detailing the legal rights and freedoms of the people under their custody.
A register listing legal and security data must be present at each detention site, the memo goes on, also adding that periodic inspections must be conducted at each site.
The state of Moroccan prisons has been under the spotlight in recent years, with many drawing attention to issues of overcrowding and inhumane treatment.
The Moroccan Center for Human Rights and Democracy Studies (CEDHD) held a symposium last year to present a report about the state of Moroccan prisons, highlighting the harm it can have on detainees and the judicial system’s overuse of it.
Source: moroccoworldnews
