The Western Sahara independence leader, whose presence at a hospital in Spain has angered Rabat, will testify by video conference at a Spanish court hearing next week, judicial sources said Wednesday. Brahim Ghali, who leads the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, has since mid-April been treated for Covid-19 at a hospital in Logrono in northern Spain, sparking a diplomatic crisis with Morocco.
Ghali has been summoned to appear before Spain’s National Court on June 1 to answer allegations of torture made by Polisario Front dissidents. The National Court has agreed to allow him to testify by videoconference if he is unable to attend the hearing in person, court sources told AFP. Saharawi sources told AFP Ghali was still in hospital “undergoing a process
of rehabilitation”.
Ghali’s presence in Spain set off a chain of events which last week saw up to 10,000 people crossing the border into Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta as Moroccan border guards looked the other way. Spain’s two tiny enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla have Europe’s only land border with Africa, making them a magnet for migrants desperate to escape grinding poverty and hunger.
In a separate probe in Spain, Ghali is also under investigation following allegations of crimes against humanity made by the Spain-based Sahrawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADEDH). The Algeria-backed Polisario Front has long fought for Western Sahara’s independence from Morocco. A desert region the size of Britain, it was a Spanish colony until 1975.
