Ken Loach and activists lobby David Cameron over Morocco trial

Lobbying: Ken Loach
12 April 2012

Film director Ken Loach will join campaigners today in calling on the Prime Minister to assist three human rights workers from the north-west African territory Western Sahara who are awaiting trial.

Activists including Loach will gather at Downing Street to deliver a letter to David Cameron urging the British Government to increase diplomatic efforts towards Morocco to ensure the trio receive a fair trial.

Previously under Spanish rule, Western Sahara is the subject of a long-running dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.

Brahim Dahane, Ali Salem Tamek and Saleh Labihi were held by Moroccan police on October 8 2009, after returning to Casablanca following a visit to the Saharawi refugee camps in the Algerian desert. The trio are due to go on trial on October 15.

The lobbying move on the first anniversary of their arrests, is being organised by the Western Sahara Campaign which works with the Saharawi people to generate political support to advance their right to self-determination.

Stefan Simanowitz, of the Western Sahara Campaign, said: "The situation of these three prisoners illustrates the urgent need for a political solution to this forgotten conflict that has lasted over three decades.

"We call on the Prime Minister and (Foreign Secretary) William Hague to raise this matter and to exert diplomatic and political pressure on those who are ignoring the requirements laid out under international law and blocking a referendum of self-determination in Western Sahara."

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