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SHADOW OF IMPUNITYTORTURE IN MOROCCO AND WESTERN SAHARA31Amnesty International also documented cases of reported use of torture or other ill-treatmentto force children to incriminate themselves. Relatives of juveniles arrested by police officersand gendarmes in the three cities said the juveniles were often interrogated without beingallowed to communicate with their legal guardians or lawyers, in violation of Moroccan law. 41They added that the children were forced to fingerprint incriminating reports while being hitand slapped on the head and ears until they were dizzy, while others were given electricshocks.A relative spoke of one child’s visible trauma and how it prevented him from speaking out:“When we saw him two days after police arrested him, he had not eaten for two days and wasterrified. Every time he hears the word ‘police’ he is terrified. He said that he was beaten buthe wouldn’t talk about it at first. They put him in pre-trial detention right away and wecouldn’t see him except from afar.”Another relative told Amnesty International:“I saw the children’s bruises when they came out of the gendarmes’ custody and saw theinvestigating judge. They said they were innocent and told the court they had been beaten –but no medical examination was ordered, and the judge accepted the interrogation report asfact.” 42In other cases, suspects were tortured or otherwise ill-treated for refusing to signinterrogation reports or for not responding to specific questions, they told AmnestyInternational.“I refused to sign the interrogation report, so they hit me again. They hooked a handcuffinside my cheek and yanked at it like they were going to pierce my skin.”This is how Abdelaziz Redaouia, 34, described his torture by officers of the National Brigadefor the Judicial Police (BNPJ) after his arrest on 5 December 2013 in Tangiers where he wason holiday. The French-Algerian dual national said that plainclothes officers arrested him andtransferred him to the BNPJ’s offices in Casablanca where police officers first accused him ofa carjacking, then illegal possession of firearms, and finally drugs offences.He said BNPJ officers tortured him to force him to sign an interrogation report that he wasnot allowed to read, and to incriminate others in crimes they did not commit. He said theofficers forced his head under water, used a car battery to give him electric shocks on hisgenitals, and beat the soles of his feet while he was suspended. He added that there was nointerpreter during the interrogation, which was led in Arabic, a language which he barelyunderstands.Abdelaziz Redaouia said that he told the court on several occasions that officers had tortured41Article 460 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.42Interviews, Guelmim, 16 May 2014.Index: MDE 29/001/2015 Amnesty International May 2015