Families to Protest in Melilla, Demanding Justice for Spanish Youths Killed by Moroccan Navy

For almost eight years now, the parents of the two victims have been demonstrating every October 27 to demand justice. "Morocco kills, Spain remains silent." This is the slogan that the parents and friends of Emin and Pilsy have never ceased to chant every year in the streets of Melilla, who would have been intercepted and shot down by a Moroccan Navy patrol boat on October 27, 2013, while they were fishing in Moroccan waters, off Punta Negri.

To read: Families Protest in Melilla, Seek Justice for 2013 Moroccan Navy Killings

On October 27 next, the families of Abdeslam Ahmed Ali and Amin Mohamed Driss (Pisly, 24 and Emin, 20) will honor this tradition. They intend to demonstrate in front of the Melilla town hall to demand justice for the death of their sons, reports El Cierre Digital. The protesters will renew on this occasion their disappointment at the silence and inaction of the Spanish government and the lack of cooperation from the Moroccan authorities. They will not fail to observe a minute of silence in memory of the two victims.

According to the report of the Moroccan gendarmerie based on the testimony of the Royal Navy and reported by the MAP, the two young men had been intercepted by an anti-immigration patrol boat which, taking them for drug traffickers, had ordered them to stop. Emin and Pisly would then have fled, ignoring the warning shots. "These shots immediately caused the death of the two people on board, as well as holes throughout the boat," according to the report. The autopsy carried out on October 31, 2013 by the Spanish authorities indicates that the two young men were hit in the chest and face before being shot dead. A version that contradicts the one given by the Moroccan authorities.

To read: article 38354

The then Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Garcia-Margallo, had assured in 2013 that the "incident" would be clarified "very quickly". In December of the same year, the government spokesman-minister of Morocco, Moustapha el Khalfi, had announced that an investigation had been opened and that its results would be transmitted "by diplomatic channels" to the Spanish authorities.

"We ask the new Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, to give us answers and to do justice. Let Spain put pressure on the Moroccan government," demand the families. Last fall, the National Court issued an international search and arrest warrant against the three Moroccan Navy military personnel accused of being the alleged perpetrators of the shooting that caused the death of the two young men. Two months later, in November, the case was dismissed following an appeal by the prosecution.