Preceded by Ahmed Harrari | Name Abdellatif Hammouchi | |
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Abdellatif hammouchi directeur g n ral de la surveillan ce du territoire et selim belmaachi
Abdellatif Hammouchi (Arabic: عبد اللطيف الحموشي; born 1966 in Fes, Morocco) is the head of the Moroccan secret services, the DGST (Formerly known as the DST, French: Direction de surveillance du territoire). He is also an advisor to Mohammed VI on terrorism-related affairs.
Contents
- Abdellatif hammouchi directeur g n ral de la surveillan ce du territoire et selim belmaachi
- Controversies
- Decoration in Spain
- Early life
- References
Controversies
Hammouchi's organisation has faced accusations of torture and abductions of mainly political opponents, people suspected of terrorism and Sahrawi dissidents. On 20 February 2014, while Hammouchi was attending a meeting with French officials in Paris, he was summoned by a French judge to testify on torture cases after multiple complaints by torture victims, such as Zakaria Moumni, against him and his organisation. His name has been often cited in connection to secret detention centres in Morocco such as the Temara interrogation centre and the Ain Aouda secret prison.
In Morocco lawsuits against the DST and Hammouchi in connection to the death of detainees under torture have been rejected for lack of evidence.
In April 2011, Moroccan journalist Rachid Niny was imprisoned after he published sensitive details about Abdellatif Hammouchi. In 2011, Hammouchi received an Alaouite Wissam decoration from Mohammed VI in recognition of his efforts for maintaining security.
Decoration in Spain
On 23 August 2014, the official press agency of Morocco, Maghreb Arabe Presse, announced that Hammouchi was awarded a decoration in Spain. This was reportedly done in response to his prosecution in France for torture, which angered Mohammed VI. It was later revealed that the decoration he received was only given to him by the Spanish administration of police and not the Ministry of the Interior and was thus inadequate with his stature as a director of a foreign intelligence agency.
Early life
He graduated from the University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah in Fes and joined the police as an officer in 1993. After Hamidou Laanigri left the DST a day after the Casablanca bombings of 16 May 2003 and was appointed as the Director of the General Directorate for National Security, he was replaced by his deputy Ahmed Harrari, who was replaced by Hammouchi in December 2005.
