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“The ten-day deadline by which Amnesty and Forbidden Stories could prove what they are claiming has expired,” Olivier Baratelli said in a statement to CNews.

“Amnesty and Forbidden Stories have not released anything, they have their fists in their pockets,” said Baratelli, adding that this “gruesome situation has shown that this case is only a hoax.”

On July 22, Morocco and its ambassador to France decided to sue Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories for defamation before the Paris Criminal Court.

The Moroccan government condemned last month “the persistent false, massive and malicious media campaign” and challenged “their peddlers to provide any tangible and material evidence” that supports their claim

Baratelli said that an expert report would be filed with the public prosecutor. “The IT expert report produced by two experts from the Court of Appeal will rule out any use by Morocco of this software,” he said.

He called on French justice to shed light on the instigators of what he called a smear campaign against Morocco.

“Morocco has detractors on the international scene. The kingdom is an international leader in the fight against terrorism. It has always been a friend of France and has helped a lot to thwart attacks on the French territory. Which may displease some,” said Baratelli.

Morocco’s lawyer said that the country had filed another lawsuit in a German court against the newspaper publishing company “Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH” for false allegations as part of a report on the alleged use of Pegasus spyware by the North African Kingdom.

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The soldiers systematically killed hundreds of civilians in the northern city of Axum, opening fire in the streets and conducting house-to-house raids in a massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity, it said in a report.

Investigators from Amnesty International spoke to survivors and witnesses who described extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate shelling and widespread looting after Ethiopian and Eritrean troops led an offensive to take control of the city during the conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in mid-November.

Reports of a massacre in Axum have been emerging in recent weeks, along with unconfirmed allegations of looting, killings and rapes elsewhere in Tigray during the war. Amnesty said satellite imagery analysis supported reports of indiscriminate shelling and mass looting in Axum, and appeared to reveal the sites of new mass burials near two of the city’s churches.

“The evidence is compelling and points to a chilling conclusion. Ethiopian and Eritrean troops carried out multiple war crimes in their offensive to take control of Axum. Above and beyond that, Eritrean troops went on a rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for east and southern Africa.

Ethiopian authorities have not yet responded to Amnesty’s allegations but issued a statement on Friday referring to “complex challenges in the region” and reasserting their intention to arrest senior members of the TPLF, which it described as a criminal “rogue group”.

“The government of Ethiopia will continue bringing all perpetrators to justice following thorough investigations into alleged crimes in the region through our federal institutions … The government of Ethiopia once again reiterates its commitment to enabling a stable and peaceful region in which its citizens’ needs are met and impunity does not prevail for perpetrators of crimes against humanity and crimes against the state,” the statement said. Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, launched the military campaign on 4 November, accusing the TPLF of attacking federal military camps in Tigray and seeking to destabilise the country. Communications to the northern state were cut and journalists and humanitarian organisations were denied access.

Abiy, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2019 for making peace with neighbouring Eritrea, declared victory against the TPLF after federal troops seized the city of Mekelle in late November, and said no civilians had been killed. His government denies the presence of thousands of soldiers from Eritrea.

Eritrea was at war with Ethiopia until Abiy did a peace deal with Isaias Afwerki, the dictatorial president of the small, secretive coastal state, in 2018. Afwerki has seen the TPLF as an enemy for decades and appears to have collaborated in the offensive of last year. The exact extent of the cooperation remains unclear, though Abiy has admitted some degree of assistance.

Yemane Meskel, the Eritrean minister of information, said his country categorically rejected the “preposterous accusations” and accused Amnesty of basing its report on the testimonies of refugees in in a camp in Sudan.

Thousands are thought to have been killed, civilians among them, and nearly 50,000 people have fled to Sudan. Battles involving tanks and fighter jets – as well as militia from Amhara, which borders Tigray to the south – have flattened villages and emptied towns. One witness told the Associated Press of soldiers bursting into the church in Axum, cornering and dragging out worshippers and shooting at those who fled.

Axum, with its ancient ruins and churches, holds significance for the Ethiopian Orthodox faithful, who believe that the Ark of the Covenant, built to hold the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, is located there.

“They started to kill people who were moving from church to home or home to home, simply because they were on the street,” another witness, Getu Mak, a visiting university lecturer, told the Associated Press. “It was a horrible act to see.”

He watched the fighting from his hotel room, then ventured out as it eased. “On every corner almost there was a body,” he said. “People were crying in every home.”

Another witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said soldiers killed a man at his home near the Zion church. “How can I tell you? So many dead,” said the man.

Amnesty said witnesses could easily identify the Eritrean forces by their vehicles’ licence plates, distinctive camouflage and footwear, as well as their use of Arabic or dialects not spoken in Ethiopia. Some told residents they were Eritrean.

The campaign group has collected the names of more than 240 of the victims. It appears likely that many more died.

Both sides appear to have committed atrocities during the conflict, though exact details are difficult to confirm. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has blamed TPLF-linked militia for a massacre in Tigray of many hundreds of labourers from the neighbouring Amhara region in the first days of the war.

The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s governing coalition for decades before Abiy came to power, and Tigrayan leaders complained of being unfairly targeted in corruption prosecutions, removed from top positions and blamed for the country’s problems.

Abiy was appointed leader of the ruling coalition of Ethiopia and so prime minister in 2018. Though his sweeping reforms won widespread praise, they have allowed old ethnic and other grievances to surface.

The postponement of national elections owing to the Covid-19 pandemic aggravated tensions, and when parliamentarians in Addis Ababa voted to extend officials’ mandates, Tigrayan leaders went ahead with regional elections in September that Abiy’s government deemed illegal.

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The New York-based rights group, in a report published on Friday, stated that it had interviewed detainees who described a catalogue of cruelties at the hands of Saudi authorities, including being chained together in pairs, forced to use their cell floors as toilets, and confined 24 hours a day in unbearably crowded cells.

Amnesty International, based on consistent eyewitness testimonies, documented the deaths of three people – an Ethiopian man, a Yemeni man and a Somali man – at al-Dayer detention center in Saudi Arabia’s southern Jizan province.

Other detainees reported at least four more deaths. Even though the organization could not independently corroborate the claims, the prevalence of disease and the lack of food, water and healthcare indicate the true number of deaths could be much higher.

Freweyni, 25, described the death of a 15-year-old boy at al-Dayer center.

“He was sleeping on the ground, covered with clothes. He was very weak. He urinated while sleeping. A boy was taking care of him. […] We shouted and the guards came in to take him….Four days later, I saw this boy lying on the ground outside. He was dead. I saw another body next to him,” he said.

Two people told Amnesty International they had prevented cellmates from committing suicide in Jizan central prison as well as Jeddah detention center. They cited the uncertainty of the situation, heat and insufficient food as key factors in driving detainees to take their own lives.

Abeba, 24, described the acute mental distress of some of those she was detained with at al-Dayer.

“Some women speak to themselves, some don’t dress up, some can’t control [themselves] when they urinate,” she said.

Amnesty noted that several women have given birth during their detention, and that they are returned to the same unsanitary conditions after a short stay at a medical facility.

Three women reported that two babies and three toddlers had died in al-Dayer, Jeddah and Mecca prisons.

“The children became sick in al-Dayer because we were sleeping in a dirty place, it was too hot and we didn’t receive enough food. They had diarrhea and they were very thin. Children were taken to the hospital, where they died,” Abeba told Amnesty International.

Two detainees reported that prison guards had administered electric shocks to them and other detainees as punishment after they complained about conditions.

“They used this electric device… It made a small hole on my clothes. I saw a man whose nose and mouth were bleeding after that. Since then, we don’t complain anymore because we’re afraid they’ll do again the electric thing on our back.” Solomon, 28, told Amnesty International.

Eight detainees said they had experienced and seen beatings by prison guards, and shootings during escape attempts.

One man said he had seen the body of a man who had been shot after trying to escape.

Amnesty called on Saudi Arabia to release the migrants and work with Ethiopian authorities to facilitate their repatriation.

“Thousands of Ethiopian migrants, who left their homes in search of a better life, have instead faced unimaginable cruelty at every turn,” Amnesty researcher Marie Forestier said in a statement.

“We are urging the Saudi authorities to immediately release all arbitrarily detained migrants, and significantly improve detention conditions before more lives are lost,” Forestier said.

Up to half a million Ethiopians were in Saudi Arabia when officials there launched a crackdown on illegal migrants in 2017, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Shelling by Saudi-led militia kills 10 African refugees in Yemen

Around 10,000 Ethiopians were on average deported monthly until Ethiopia requested a moratorium earlier this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ethiopia appears careful not to antagonize Saudi Arabia, which is a key source of foreign remittances.

Three migrants told AFP news agency last month that visiting Ethiopian diplomats had warned migrants to stop speaking out about detention conditions.

Tsion Teklu, a state minister at Ethiopia’s foreign ministry, said in September that the total number of Ethiopian migrants in Saudi detention facilities was 16,000 earlier this year, but that it had since gone down.

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