40 Sahrawi Activists Beaten by Moroccan Police at Laayoun Airport

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Forty Sahrawi human rights defenders were "assaulted and beaten" by the Moroccan police later Monday at the airport of the occupied capital of Western Sahara Laayoun, the Sahrawi news agency SPS reported Tuesday.

The Sahrawi activists returned from Algiers where they attended the 2nd conference on the right of peoples to resistance, the SPS quoted an official Sahrawi as saying.

They were assaulted by tens of police officers equipped with billstickers, who insulted and beat them for four hours, the source added. 

The police officers had deprived the activists from the documents and books they got, before throwing them outside the airport with their gaping bags and torn clothes scattered on earth.

Early on Tuesday, the Moroccan authorities have prevented by force European parliament members Willy Meyer and lawyer Jose Perez Ventura from entry to Laayoun.

The Sahrawi government has “strongly” condemned such an “assault,” saying “by doing so, the Moroccan authorities confirm that they reject permitting observers accessing the occupied territories, where citizens are suffering serious human rights violations.”

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