Spanish Foreign Minister: Polisario Leader Will Appear in Court if Summoned

"If justice considers that he (Brahim Ghali) must appear, he will appear. [...] In Spain, justice is independent and the government is extremely respectful of the actions of justice," Arancha Gonzalez Laya reacted during a joint press conference with her Serbian counterpart, Nikola Selakovi. She argued that it is not the responsibility of the Spanish government to intervene "in the free functioning of justice either in this case or in any other." "Justice will do what it has to do and the government will fully respect it as it cannot be otherwise in a democratic country," added the head of Spanish diplomacy.

On April 21, the Polisario leader had been urgently admitted to a hospital in Logroño, near Zaragoza, under the assumed name of Mohamed Ben Battouche, of Algerian nationality. This evacuation has caused new tensions between Spain and Morocco. Gonzalez Laya 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".