Spanish judge grills Polisario leader
MADRID - The leader of Western Sahara's independence movement, whose presence in Spain has angered Morocco, was yesterday questioned by a Spanish judge about allegations of torture and genocide.
The closed-door hearing at Spain's National Court in Madrid began at 10:15 hours with Brahim Ghali, who heads the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, testifying by video conference from a hospital in northern Spain where he is recovering from a severe case of Covid-19.
Ghali, who is also the president of the Sahrawi Democratic Arab Republic, a self-declared state since 1976, is facing two investigations in Spain.
After completing his investigations, the presiding judge will have to decide whether to charge the Polisario leader or dismiss the lawsuits against him.
Ghali was severely ill when he arrived at a hospital in the northern Spanish town of Logrono in mid-April, with his presence in Spain triggering a major diplomatic spat between Rabat and Madrid.
Last month, Spain was caught off guard when as many as 10, 000 people surged into its tiny north African enclave of Ceuta as Moroccan border guards looked the other way in what was widely seen as a punitive political gesture.
The Polisario Front has long fought for the independence of Western Sahara, a desert region bigger than Britain which was a Spanish colony until 1975.
Morocco controls 80 percent of the territory, while the rest - an area bordering Mauritania that is almost totally landlocked - is run by the Polisario Front.
One of the investigations relates to allegations of torture at Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, a town in western Algeria.
The second investigation relates to allegations of genocide, murder, terrorism, torture and disappearances made in 2007 by the Sahrawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights which is based in Spain.
The Spanish judge handling this case has refused to impose any precautionary measures - such as seizing the Polisario leader's passport as requested by the complainants - arguing there are no "clear indications of his involvement" in the crimes of which he has been accused.