Spanish Court Denies Summons for Polisario Leader Brahim Ghali Amid Controversy

Brahim Ghali "was not summoned today (Wednesday)," the spokesman for the Audiencia Nacional told AFP. A statement that contradicts that of a source close to the case. The latter had told the same press agency that the Polisario leader had been summoned for a hearing scheduled for this Wednesday following a complaint filed by El Fadel Breika, -a dissident of the independence movement naturalized Spanish- for "kidnapping, arbitrary detention and torture" in the Tindouf prisons.

The Spanish media had reported that the magistrate Santiago Pedraz Gomez, the investigating judge in Madrid, had issued a summons for the hearing of the separatist leader on May 5, as well as that of other influential members of the independence movement. Another source indicated that the same magistrate had decided to postpone the hearing of the Polisario leader to May 7. "It was only requested that the police locate him and verify if he was in Spain. [...] The judge asked the police to make the necessary checks to certify that this person who is said to be hospitalized in Logroño (northern Spain) is indeed him," the court spokesman continued.

Since the admission of the Polisario leader in Spain on April 21, the Spanish victims of the independence movement have been demanding justice. Tensions have risen a notch between Morocco and Spain. In a recent press conference, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, reaffirmed that relations between the two countries are at their "best" and that the kingdom and the Iberian peninsula are not just neighbors but "privileged partners". Her counterpart, Nasser Bourita, accused her of a "pick-and-choose relationship" with Rabat.