The harassment of an Italian judge in company with his family in El Aaiun, Western Sahara by the Moroccan authorities.

On August 3, 2007, at about 20:30 the Moroccan police stopped the Italian judge, Nicolas Quatrano, 55 years old, who had rented a bungalow for his family in Foum Eloued beach, 25 kilometers west of El Aaiun, Western Sahara.

The judge was stopped by the police in a check-point, about 8 kilometers far from El Aaiun, where his car "Dacia Logan" was confiscated. The car had been rented from an agency in Agadir, south of Morocco in a legal way.

The judge, Nicolas Quatrano, his wife, Annamaria, his two sons, Valerio and Daniele, and the family friend, Giulia Lippi, were all left in the check-point in complete fear and anger.

Since the confiscation of his car, the Italian judge, Nicolas Quatrano is still looking for his car and for logical reasons for this treatment. Up to now, and despite the intervention of the Italian embassy in Rabat, and his frequent go and come to the principal police center in El Aaiun, he could not yet get his car and its documents.
In a telephone call with the CODESA, Mr. Nicolas Quatrano expressed his astonishment to the way the Moroccan police are treating him. He is also unconvinced by the evidence they give concerning the confiscation of his car and the documents.

On the way from Agadir to El Aaiun, about 650 kilometers no single checkpoint mentioned the illegality of these papers.

The CODESA secretariat fears that the real reason behind this harassment is his attendance to the trial of the Sahrawi students in Marrakech, Morocco on August 02, 2007, and his interest in the violations of human rights perpetrated by the Moroccan authorities in the Western Sahara.

The CODESA also notifies that this is not the first time the Moroccan authorities ill-treats European visitors to the Western Sahara, delegations, human rights activists, journalists, etc.

On July 04, 2005, the Moroccan police forced the president of the Norwegian Rafto Foundation for human rights and the spokesman of the Norwegian Support Committee for the Western Sahara and other trade union members to leave the Western Sahara towards their countries.
Mr. Nicolas Quatrano was born in 1952, an is still practicing his job as a judge in Napoli, Italy.