Polisario Front Leader Owes Spanish Hospital $50,000 for 2021 Treatment

According to a resolution from the Transparency Portal of the Government of La Rioja to which The Objective had access, the Sahrawi independence leader owes the sum of 45,658 euros to the San Pedro de Logroño hospital where he stayed between April 18 and June 1, 2021. In its response to a request for information, provided on November 23, 2023, the management of the La Rioja Health Service explained that on July 7, 2021, a little over a month after Ghali’s discharge, the hospital issued an invoice for this amount in the name of Mohamed Benbatouche, the identity under which Brahim Ghali had been admitted following a complication of Covid-19.

The invoice not having been paid, the hospital sent it on September 2, 2021 to the Directorate General of Legal Services. It was then that the institution revealed the patient’s true identity as Brahim Ghali. After obtaining the address of the Sahrawi leader from the "competent state agencies", the Logroño hospital issued a new invoice for the same amount in the name of Brahim Ghali on December 28, 2022. Not having received payment of the invoice, the establishment sent the invoice to its legal services in March 2023 to initiate "procedures to claim payment". As of the latest news, the invoice has still not been paid.

The reception of Brahim Ghali under a false identity in this hospital in La Rioja on April 18, 2021 had provoked the anger of Morocco and led to a serious diplomatic and migratory crisis with Spain. The Spanish authorities had cited "humanitarian" reasons to justify their decision to allow Ghali to enter the territory, following a request from Algeria, and explained that they had opted for "discretion" on this information so as not to irritate Morocco. The two countries normalized their relations in April 2022, after Pedro Sanchez expressed his support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara.