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the release of the political detainees.
Al groups then urged the CMLN to include AI-adopted prisoners in this over amnesty. On 2 June 1975, 15 political prisoners were released, presumably as pa of the amnesty. They included associates of former President Modibo Keita whose government was overthrown in the 1968 coup. All those released were AI adoptees.
Mauritania
Although the 20 Mauritanian prisoners taken up as investigation cases by Amnesty International groups during 1973 were released on provisional liberty in March 1974, a new wave of arrests later took place in the country, apparently in response to the distribution of an anti-government leaflet. The detainees, who were reportedly being held at the Prison Civile de Beyla in the capital, Nouakchott, were mostly young people and students, and included some of the 1973 detainees.
By early 1975 none of the prisoners had been charged or brought to trial, and in consequence, between January and March 1975 AI adopted 30 of the detainees. In June AI learned of the release of these prisoners on "provisional liberty".
Morocco
During 1974-75 Amnesty International was principally concerned with three groups of prisoners in Morocco. The first consisted of members or supporters of the opposition party Union Nationale des Forces Populaires (UNFP) who had been tried on charges of subversion at two major political trials: at Marrakesh in 1971 and at Kenitra in 1973.
The second included leftwing students and teachers who had been sentenced to long prison terms following a trial in Casablanca in 1973. The third consisted of leftwing activists who had been arrested early in 1973 and never charged or brought before a court.
By mid-1974 AI groups were handling more than 180 adoption or investigation cases in these three categories, and a new wave of arrests beginning in November 1974 saw the imprisonment of more than 100 individuals. Some of the latter had been sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia at the 1973 Casablanca trial and had been in hiding since that time. Reports of the torture of political detainees continued to reach the Research Department, and in December 1974 AI received confirmed reports that Professor Bekhali, a professor of philosophy at Casablanca, had died during the previous month after torture.
Against this background, AI has intensified its work on Morocco, taking up further adoption and investigation cases. In August 1974 the Research Department produced a new background paper on Morocco. Coordination group work proved most valuable, and made it possible to plan a concerted campaign during 1975 aimed at encouraging a general amnesty on the birthday of King Hassan II on 9 July 1975.
There are some hopeful signs, however, that the human rights situation in Morocco may be improving. In spite of continuing arrests and reports of torture. the Moroccan government has moved during the past year towards a
rapprochement with the leading opposition parties, mainly in an attempt to build
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