Morocco puts African migrants on trial after deadly Melilla massacre
3 Min Read
The trial on Monday was stopped immediately - but the next will be on the 12th of July, and it'll be trying a minor too.
-
African migrants sit at the top of a border fence, as Spanish officers stand below, during an attempt to cross into Spain. (Reuters)
Morocco started a trial on Monday against 3 migrants who have tried to "illegally enter" into Melilla enclave, but the trial was put to a stop immediately, according to lawyers.
The hearing came 11 days after at least 23 migrants were killed as they tried to enter Melilla, as Spanish authorities waged systemic violence against the migrants who mostly came from Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, and Niger.
"We have asked for a postponement to better prepare the case, as other lawyers had joined the defence team," lawyer Khalid Ameza told AFP.
The defendants that were brought to court faced charges of "illegal entry into Moroccan territory," violence against security forces, forming an "armed mob" and "refusal to comply" with orders.
The next hearing will take place on July 12 in Nador, northern Morocco, where 29 more migrants - one of which is a minor - will show up on charges of "joining a criminal gang to organise and facilitate illegal immigration," said Ameza.
The 65 defendants were among 2,000 irregular migrants who attempted to cross the fence that borders the European Union.
Though authorities have been saying that 23 migrants died, human rights organizations have been saying 37.
They didn't just die - Spain massacred 37 refugees crossing in Melilla
Most recently, what seemed like an "unfortunate event" on the Morocco-Melilla border was, thanks to videos circulated by the media, a massacre that brutally killed 37 mostly-African refugees coming from Chad, Niger, South Sudan, and Sudan. Over 150 were injured in the systemic violence, which included charges and beatings by security forces coming from both the Spanish and the Moroccan sides.
The scene at the border is hardly representative of Spain's "democratic" values. After refugees, fleeing wars that have no end in Africa, climbed fences 6 to 10 meters high, they were beaten up violently by Spanish police that worked in close coordination with the Moroccan authorities, calling them in illegally.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez articulated his full support for the border guards' actions, demonizing the refugees as attackers infringing on the "territorial integirty" of Spain.
Europe’s imperialist viewpoint of the world comes as no surprise – the increasing militarization and systemic brutality of the continent’s armies are resurrecting grounds for fascist violence on its borders as well as its neo-colonies.
Read more: The West lost Africa through 'Cold War-esque' policies, liberalism
More alive than ever today, European fascism (even the self-proclaimed leftist presidents) is waging a war on the east, their armies in the process of deploying the most brutal forms of repression against those standing in their way of imperial conquest.
The magnitude of the crime is unaddressed. Not only is there a media blackout on the topic, but there was no word of mention of the catastrophe as well in the G7 Summit.
