Derb Moulay Shrif, Casablanca

“There the detainee was deprived of sight and all his senses, and even from his consciousness and humanity”
Derb Moulay Shrif lies in Hay Al-Mohammadi District, in Casablanca. From 1959, it was used by the national police unit responsible for matters ranging from political crimes to drug smuggling and fraud. The ground floor functioned as police headquarters before it became a clandestine center for imprisonment and kidnapping. Many of those who were tortured there have referenced the existence of an underground floor far larger than the building space itself. The center held detainees from various provinces, from a range of political, union, and civic groups which were associated with political events, social riots, or revolutionary and sit-in movements.
The center of Derb Moulay Shrif constitutes a four-floor building composed of 35 flats intended to house police officers. The emergence of stories of the torture that took place inside made even passing by a frightening prospect.
Derb Moulay Shrif is considered a secret national center for illegal detention, from which detainees who underwent interrogation were shipped to other clandestine facilities.