(AI translated) Ibrahim Ismaili, born in 1970, is a Sahrawi human rights activist and the director of the Sahrawi Center for the Preservation of Collective Memory. His human rights and political activism have frequently led to his arrest and political detention. His experiences with political imprisonment began in 1987, when he was kidnapped and detained for several months in a secret detention center, during a period in which Western Sahara saw widespread arrests and forced disappearances of Sahrawis due to their political views and human rights demands.

On November 9, 2010, Ibrahim Ismaili was once again arrested at his home in the Zamala neighborhood of the occupied city of Laayoune, in the presence of his wife and two of their four children. He was then transferred to the Aqhel prison in Laayoune. Seven months later, on May 13, 2011, he was released along with several other Sahrawi detainees. However, this release was short-lived: the Moroccan occupation police immediately arrested him again outside the prison and took him to the Salé prison, located approximately 1,200 kilometers north of Laayoune, the capital of Western Sahara. This arrest marked a new stage in his legal ordeal, as in 2017 the Salé appeals court sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The Sahrawi political prisoner Ibrahim Ismaili asserts that the confessions and statements used against him in the trial were obtained under torture and coercion. He also categorically denies being present at the Aqdim Izik camp at the time of its destruction, which he considers a key element in disputing the charges against him. In this context, his case is one of many involving Sahrawi human rights activists who have been arrested and prosecuted due to their political and human rights activities, and who have faced mistreatment, torture, and forced confessions as a result.