Spanish Court Extends Torture Probe Against Polisario Leader Brahim Ghali

This extension was made to allow the investigating judge to summon a witness proposed by Breica, who would have witnessed the acts of torture of which the latter claims to have been a victim for having been detained like him in 2019 in the Tindouf camps (Algeria). The witness was supposed to appear more than a year ago, but was unable to respond to Judge Pedraz’s summons due to difficulties in obtaining a visa to enter Spain, according to judicial sources at Europa Press.

Fadel Breica filed a complaint against Brahim Ghali, accusing him of crimes of illegal detention, torture and crimes against humanity that would have been committed in 2019 in the Tindouf camps. In his complaint, he explains that he was arrested by Polisario militiamen and transferred to these clandestine camps where he would have been tortured. During his appearance on June 29, 2021, Breica insisted that he had suffered acts of torture for six months, on the orders of Brahim Ghali.

Breica’s complaint is the only one still under investigation against the Sahrawi leader before the National Court, the complaint of the Sahrawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADEDH) and 27 other Polisario members for crimes of genocide having been dismissed. Testifying on June 1, 2021 by videoconference from the San Pedro de Logroño hospital where he was admitted under a false identity,