Polisario Leader Ghali Flees to Algeria After Spanish Hospital Stay Amid Accusations

The Polisario chief is now in Algeria. He joined the country of his protector in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, June 2, after weeks of treatment at the San Pedro de Logroño hospital. After leaving this hospital, he went to the Pamplona (Navarre) airport to take a return flight to Algiers (special flight ARL 915) on board an Algerian official plane, a Hawker Beechcraft 1000 civil (registered F-HMED) chartered by the neighboring country from Airlec Air Espace, a French private company specializing in medical transport, based in Bordeaux.

The decision of the judge of the National Court, Santiago Pedraz, who questioned him, allowed this departure. He rejected, for the second time, the precautionary measures requested by the prosecution, namely the withdrawal of the Polisario leader’s passport, his placement in pre-trial detention, etc., and indicated that the separatist leader should be able to "be located at a residence and reachable on a telephone number".

According to Europa Press, Madrid has informed Rabat of the departure of Brahim Ghali. The Spanish Ministry of the Interior authorized the plane of the "President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)" to operate and take off at 1:30 am (local time) from Pamplona airport bound for the Boufarik military airport in Algiers. Before the start of the hearing, there had already been an attempted exfiltration that was ultimately aborted. A plane belonging to the Algerian state, departing from Algiers for Logroño, had turned back on "orders from the military air traffic controllers" of the Iberian peninsula.