He spent 22 years in Moroccan prisons on a trumped up charges

Youssef Souali is on of the Algerians who was put in detention by the Moroccan regime while he was minor and spent 22 years behind bars moving from one prison to another. A tragic tale revealed by an Algerian child who underwent all kinds of tortures and humiliations.

• Despite pressures from his family members, who wanted him to keep his story for himself, Youssef spat it out through “Echorouk” saying “Algerians, I was wrongly detained in Morocco.. and this is my story”.
• 22 years in darkness roving between prisons:
•    He was arrested in the aftermath of the demonstrations that broke out in “ Dar Al Beida”, Morocco  on June19-20 , 1981when scores of Moroccans took to the streets to  denounce  social misery . Moroccan authorities crushed down the rebellion with series of arrests among them the young Youssef who was heading for hospital to change his bandage following an injury contracted in his carpentry workshop a week before the events.
• After a briskly trial, in the absence of a lawyer to defend him,  Youssef was sentenced to life upon several charges and spent 7 years in a dungeon where he lost speech then transferred to a psychiatric hospital for more than 3 years.
• I became mute and thought it was the end:
• Youssef was born to an Algerian father and a Moroccan mother who saw his life turned upside down after the departure of his father, forcing him to look for a job to sustain his family. He found a job as a wood carrier in carpentry but was not allowed to acquire the skills. The day of his arrest, Youssef was heading for the hospital to change a bandage in his left leg, but was intercepted by a military patrol and arrested along with other demonstrators than transported to a military barracks to dwell there for a week.
• This episode was the prologue to series of all kinds of physical tortures and moral humiliations. Youssef was asked to wear pissed on clothes and put inside a half- full barrel of water all night with his leg bleeding.
• Despite years of suffering, Youssef kept hope inside, but one day while he was interned in a psychiatric hospital, a male nurse approached him to offer his help because he knew that he was innocent and that the Moroccan regime acted unlawfully. The man gave a white sheet of paper and asked Youssef to write down his grievances but soon after he was embarked by tortures to an obscure place and put down the paper in front of him then pierced his right hand with a hot bar.
• In 2003 Youssef benefited from the royal pardon on the occasion of the birth of the king’s child. Now at 38 he sought refuge in the province of Telemcen ( western Algeria) .