Mohammed Daddach

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Sidi Mohammed Daddach (Arabic: سيدي محمد دداش‎) (b. 1957? in Guelta Zemmur) is a Sahrawi political activist and former political prisoner.

Imprisoned for more than two decades by the Moroccan authorities, Daddach has become an important symbol of Western Sahara’s struggle for self-determination. He has spoken forcefully about Morocco’s human rights violations, and drawn the world's attention to the hundreds of Sahrawis who have "disappeared" after the Moroccan invasion in 1975.

Daddach was again arrested in 1979, and sentenced to death for having attempted to join the Polisario Front, Western Sahara's liberation movement. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1994.[1] In 1999, he was released by royal amnesty, after years of campaigning for his liberation by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, such as the Sahrawi group AFAPREDESA.

In 2002 he was awarded the Rafto Prize for his efforts[2], and after some difficulties obtaining a passport, he was finally able to go to collect the prize in Norway, where he also met his mother for the first time since 1975 - she presently lives in exile in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria.

He is one of very few leading human rights-activists who have not been jailed during the political protests that began in May 2005, dubbed the "Independence Intifada" by Sahrawi sympathizers. Still, he has been repeatedly pressured and harassed by Moroccan security services since his release.[3][4][5][6][7][8]