A former soldier on hunger strike in Spain, claiming to be threatened in Morocco

Detained for a month at the CIE after his initial asylum request was rejected, the young man has stopped eating and refuses all medical treatment to compel the Spanish authorities to re-examine his case. According to his lawyer, Fernando Martínez, the request is based on a "well-founded fear" of persecution: a soldier between 2014 and 2017, Touanina claims to have participated in operations against arms and drug trafficking, during which he says he shot down a member of a criminal organization. He now fears targeted vendettas in case of forced return to the country.

Faced with the rapid deterioration of his health, his defense is requesting his "immediate release", arguing that this hunger strike constitutes a new fact of extreme gravity. The detainee had to be evacuated on Tuesday to the emergency department of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. Although the medical report rules out any psychiatric pathology, it notes "passive suicidal ideation" related to his detention, before the patient was sent back to his cell under police surveillance.

As the legal detention period is approaching its end, Omar Touanina maintains his standoff, hoping that media and legal pressure will force the administration to suspend his deportation to Morocco.