Spanish Court to Hear Key Witnesses in Polisario Leader’s Human Rights Case

Judge Pedraz had agreed to take the testimony of Ahmed Tarouzi, whose name appears in the initial complaint involving Ghali, and had refused to summon the two other witnesses proposed by the Sahrawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADEHD). However, the testimony of these two witnesses is crucial, the association believes.

In addition to the testimony of Ahmed Tarouzi, Judge Pedraz will also receive on Tuesday, July 27, that of a cellmate of Fadel Breica, the Sahrawi activist of Spanish origin who also filed a complaint against Ghali. The latter would have witnessed the torture suffered by Breica in the Tindouf camps in 2019. Summoned to appear on June 29, he had not been able to honor the appointment due to difficulties in obtaining a visa to enter Spain. Breica, his wife and another man had appeared that day, reports El Confidencial Digital.

In his complaint against Ghali, Breica accuses the Polisario Front agents of having subjected him to beatings and electric shocks and other inhuman and degrading treatment. To this complaint is added that of ASADEDH against Ghali and 27 other members of the Polisario Front for the ill-treatment they allegedly inflicted on prisoners of war and Sahrawi citizens, "especially those of Spanish origin".

Brahim Ghali appeared by videoconference on June 1 from the San Pedro de Logroño hospital where he was admitted on April 18 due to complications from the coronavirus. At this hearing, Judge Pedraz did not take any interim measures against him, which allowed the leader of the Polisario Front to return to Algeria in the early hours of June 2 on board a medicalized plane. His reception by Spain has provoked a serious diplomatic crisis with Morocco, coupled with an unprecedented migration crisis that occurred in May with the massive arrival of migrants in Ceuta.