Middle East Monitor / July 8, 2023
The Moroccan Coalition for Human Rights Organizations wrote to Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch to urgently intervene to prevent the extradition of a Palestinian citizen. A Moroccan judicial decision was issued against him, stipulating his extradition to the Israeli occupation authorities.
The Moroccan Coalition for Human Rights stated, in the letter addressed to Akhannouch and published by the Moroccan Lakum website, that the matter concerns Nassim Khalibat, who was arrested in Morocco.
The human rights coalition stated that it is following the file of Khalibat with much concern after a Moroccan judicial decision was issued to accept his extradition to the Israeli occupation authorities, despite this decision contradicting Morocco’s international obligations. These obligations went into effect when the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was approved on 21 June, 1993.
The Coalition highlighted that the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 3 of the Convention stipulate: “No State Party shall expel, return or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”
It stressed that Khalibat (who holds Israeli citizenship), currently detained in the city of Sale after being arrested by the Moroccan authorities, confirms that he is threatened with torture. By virtue of their international obligations, this will make the Moroccan authorities responsible for the right to freedom, life, physical integrity and the personal security of the person concerned.
The Moroccan Coalition announced its correspondence with the head of the Committee against Torture in Geneva to urgently intervene with the Moroccan state to urge it not to surrender Khalibat to the Israeli occupation authorities.
Tel Aviv asked Rabat at the end of last June, for the first time since the signing of the normalization agreements between Morocco and Israel in 2020, to extradite an Arab citizen from Israel on suspicion of his relationship with the bombing of a Ministry of Health facility in Nazareth in 2021. Khalibat, who fled Israel in March 2022, was arrested in Rabat last January, prompting Israel to request his extradition, although there is no agreement between the two countries.
