Amnesty International, a human-rights non-governmental organization, has published an article on its official website on the 11th of August, reporting accounts of several Hirak detainees who have claimed that they were allegedly tortured by the police while held in custody. According to Amnesty, around 66 people who were arrested amid the Hirak demonstrations held in the city of Al Hoceima reported that they were «heavily beaten, suffocated, stripped naked, threatened with rape and insulted by police, sometimes to force them to 'confess'». The NGO calls the Moroccan authorities through its report to «ensure a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into their claims, and for any 'confessions' extracted under duress to be excluded from trial proceedings». Based on several accounts given by Hirak lawyers, Amnesty mentions, Nasser Zafzafi, Rabii Lablaq, Omar Bouhrass, and Imad el-Attabi. It states that Rabii Lablaq who was arrested on the 28th of May «said they suffocated him by stuffing a cloth soaked with a foul-smelling liquid into his mouth, then stripped off his clothes and brought in masked men who threatened to gang rape him then rape him with a bottle, if he did not sign the interrogation reports». Seemingly, the same source indicates that Omar Bouhrass who was arrested on the 3rd of July told the investigating judge according to his lawyers that «police beat him while ordering him to say 'Long live the King', stripped him of his underwear, broke two of his teeth, and threatened and insulted him following his arrest in Al Hoceima». On the other hand, Nasser Zafzafi's lawyer told Amnesty that «the police officers beat him in custody and threatened to rape his elderly mother in front of him».
