Spain aroused Morocco’s anger at allowing entry and then hospitalization for the leader of the Saharawi separatists from the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali. On Saturday, Morocco called the Spanish ambassador to Rabat to ask for explanations. Madrid assured that this decision should not affect the good relations between Morocco and Spain.
It would be for humanitarian reasons that Spain accepted the hospital stay of the secretary general of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, according to the head of Spanish diplomacy, Arancha Gonzalez Laya. According to the Spanish media, he would have entered Spain via Algeria under a false identity, reports our correspondent in Madrid, Diane Cambon.
He suffers from Covid-19 and was cared for at a hospital in Logroño in the Navarre region, in the north of the country. Many details about the conditions of his arrival in Spain remain to be clarified.
Since 2006, Brahim Ghali has been indicted in Spain by the National Court of Crime, Genocide and Torture following a complaint from three Sahrawis living in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria.
Morocco has expressed its outrage and asks Spain for an explanation when Madrid tries to devalue the situation and assures that Spain maintains very good relations with Morocco. “This does not prevent or disrupt the excellent relations that Spain has with Morocco,” Arancha Gonzalez Laya assured at a press conference this weekend.
It remains to be seen what Brahim Ghali will do when he recovers and he can leave the hospital and whether Spain will continue with his arrest.Mr. Ghali was elected on July 9, 2016 as Head of the Polisario, fighting for the independence of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, that he is arguing with Morocco.
In Western Sahara, classified as a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN in the absence of a final settlement, Morocco has opposed the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria for almost half a century. The Kingdom of Morocco had observed a ceasefire for almost 30 years before resumption of hostilities in mid-November 2020, when Moroccan troops deployed to a buffer zone south of Western Sahara.
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