Brahim Ghali was heard on Tuesday morning, June 1, 2021, by a judge. The leader of the Saharawi independence movement, which suffers from Covid-19 and cancer, has been treated in Spain since mid-April. He was the subject of two complaints against him in the country, including genocide, illegal detention and torture. The hearing was held in a tense diplomatic context on the issue of Western Sahara, but the judge did not follow the prosecutor’s request.
Lawyers from civil parties had demanded the provisional imprisonment of Brahim Ghali and the confiscation of his passport. During the hearing, the Saharawi leader denied all allegations against him. The questions focused in particular on his leadership of the Tindouf camps on the border between Algeria and Morocco. He is suspected of ordering genocide and torture there in 2009 against Saharawi citizens.
On this complaint, which was filed by Asadeh, the Sahrawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights, Brahim Ghali submitted questions from the judge, the prosecutor and his lawyer, but he refused as Spanish law. Authorizes him to do so, to answer questions from prosecutors.
The same scenario for the second complaint, the leader of the Polisario Front denied any arbitrary detention of Fadel Breika, a Spaniard of Sahrawi origin, who also accuses him of torture during a stay in Tindouf in April 2019.
The judge found that there was no evidence to justify detention or restriction of movement. The only restriction imposed by the Spanish magistrate on Brahim Ghali is to provide an address and telephone number where he can be contacted.
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