Spanish Judge Seeks Officials Who Authorized Polisario Leader’s Entry

The judge made this request following the response of General José Luis Ortiz-Cañavate, then commander of the Zaragoza air base, to the questions he addressed to him in the context of this case. The latter assured that he had received the order from the cabinet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Air Force General Staff not to subject the passengers of the Algerian plane carrying Ghali to any control.

It is in view of this information that the judge has asked the two departments to provide him with the names of those who gave and received instructions to facilitate Ghali’s entry into Spain and his admission to the Logroño hospital under a false identity. The judge also asked to specify, with supporting evidence, whether there were any exchanges of correspondence in this regard.

Some sources close to the case indicate that the diplomat Camilo Villarino, chief of staff of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, would be the one who ordered the air force to let the leader of the Polisario Front enter, without completing the customs control formalities.

In addition, the judge also ordered an investigation into the transfer of Brahim Ghali from the Zaragoza air base to the Logroño hospital. This, after the President of Aragon, Javier Lambán, declared at the end of May that the Polisario Front leader was not transported on board an ambulance from the Aragonese health service, as indicated in the police report. He therefore sent a questionnaire to the Aragonese health service to find out if one of its ambulances went to the air base to pick up Brahim Ghali.

The leader of the Polisario Front arrived in Zaragoza on April 18 in an Algerian government plane, and was transferred by ambulance to the Logroño hospital where he was admitted under a false identity. Prosecuted for the crimes of genocide, torture, kidnapping, forgery and use of forgery, Brahim Ghali appeared on June 1 before the National Court in Spain, before returning a few hours later to Algeria.