Mr. Boukhari’s lawyer, Abderrahim Jamai, maintains that his client had already been tried and convicted in 1998 on the principal charges in this new case. At the very least, the timing of Mr. Boukhari’s arrest and conviction strongly suggests that the state’s main motives are to punish and silence him.

We also note that these measures may also be designed to prevent Mr. Boukhari from complying with the subpoena filed by the French investigating judge responsible for looking into the October 1965 kidnap and disappearance in Paris of Mehdi Ben Barka. Judge Jean-Baptiste Parlos has invited Mr. Boukhari to testify on the matter in his chamber in Paris on September 7.

According to Boukhari’s revelations, first published by French and Moroccan newspapers on June 29, Moroccan security agents arranged for Ben Barka’s kidnapping, then tortured him to death in France and transported his body to Morocco, where they dissolved it in a vat of acid. Several of the alleged perpetrators who are still alive and living in Morocco have sued Mr. Boukhari for defamation, but no information undermining his account has been made public.

Mr. Boukhari, who has declared his readiness to travel to testify before Judge Parlos, is now confined to a Casablanca jail. His application for a passport, filed July 17, has so far gone unanswered.

In interviews in the press since last month, Mr. Boukhari has also provided information about the abduction of labor leader Abdelhak Rouissi in 1964 and the assassination of journalist and socialist activist Omar Benjelloun in 1975, among other cases.

To their credit, Moroccan authorities have begun to acknowledge and pay reparations for the grave human rights violations that state agents committed against suspected dissidents and political activists in the 1960s and 1970s. The late King Hassan II even tasked the Consultative Council for Human Rights with elucidating scores of cases of unsolved state-sponsored “disappearances” from that period. And as Minister of Justice, you have spoken honorably and often about the need for reforming the judiciary.

For these reasons, Human Rights Watch is particularly disappointed that Morocco’s judiciary has not seized on the new evidence provided by Mr. Boukhari’s testimony to initiate or re-open criminal investigations into cases of forced disappearances and murders. We urge the government to do so without further delay. We also request that you ensure that Mr. Boukhari is able to travel to Paris to testify in response to Judge Parlos’ request.

Basic principles of international law affirm that the grave crimes described by Mr. Boukhari should not be covered by any statutes of limitation that may exist under Moroccan law. The Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (U.N. General Assembly resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992) states in article 17, “Acts constituting enforced disappearance shall be considered a continuing offence as long as the perpetrators continue to conceal the fate and the whereabouts of persons who have disappeared and these facts remain unclarified.” Article 13.6 of the Declaration states: “An investigation, in accordance with the procedures described above, should be able to be conducted for as long as the fate of the victim of enforced disappearance remains unclarified.”

As for murders and other grave offenses committed in the 1960s and 1970s, here also a statute of limitation should not at this time be invoked. For much of the period since those crimes were committed, Morocco lacked an independent judiciary offering a reasonable legal recourse to investigate them and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Without suggesting that Mr. Boukhari should be above the law, Human Rights Watch believes he must be treated in a way that respects his internationally recognized rights to freedom of expression, to a fair trial, and to equal treatment before the law. Because Mr. Boukhari is potentially a valuable witness to gross human rights violations, the state has an obligation to facilitate rather than impede his testimony before appropriate forums. The Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance states in Article 13, “Steps shall be taken to ensure that all involved in the investigation [of a “disappearance”], including the complainant, counsel, witnesses and those conducting the investigation, are protected against ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisal.” (italics added)

In short, we consider the case of Mr. Boukhari to be a bellwether for the stated commitment of Moroccan authorities to respect human rights and deal honorably with abuses of the past. We again urge you to ensure that Mr. Boukhari’s charges will be subject to a thorough and impartial investigation by the Moroccan authorities, and that the government will facilitate his cooperation with the French judicial inquiry into the fate of Mehdi Ben Barka.

Sincerely yours,