A video targeting Felipe VI prompts a complaint in Melilla against a former Moroccan elected official
The Melilla government announces legal action against Yahya Yahya, former senator for Nador and former mayor of Beni Enzar. In a video that went viral in Spain, he promises a bloody response if Felipe VI visits Sebta and Melilla.
Facing the camera, Yahya Yahya directly addresses the Spanish monarch. “If King Felipe VI visits the occupied presidios of Sebta and Melilla, we Moroccans will shed the last drop of our blood to defend our territorial integrity in northern Morocco,” he says in this footage filmed in front of the Spanish consulate in Beni Enzar.
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The clip circulated widely in Spain, often accompanied by messages claiming that “the Moroccans” had made a “death threat” against Felipe VI. The fact-checking site Maldita found the full video and identified the two men who appear in it.
Yahya Yahya is accompanied by Rachid Hussein. Both speak on behalf of the “National Committee for the Defense of the Issues of the Kingdom of Morocco and Its Territorial Integrity.” This organization is not recognized by the Moroccan authorities. In the video, its own leaders call for a legal and institutional framework.
The full footage also shows the two men inspecting the area around the Spanish consulate. They announce their intention to go near the border crossings at Beni Enzar, Barrio Chino and Farjana to prepare future actions against the Spanish monarch’s visit, which they describe as a “provocation.”
Melilla announces legal action
Yahya Yahya has previously led the Committee for the Liberation of Sebta and Melilla, which no longer exists. In 2012, members of the organization had entered the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, where a Spanish military post is located. The former mayor of Beni Enzar later resigned from his position as a Moroccan senator in 2014.
His latest statements prompted a reaction from Melilla’s president, Juan José Imbroda. The autonomous city’s government announced that it would take legal action against the former Moroccan elected official. “We are going to court and will do everything possible to ensure that the judges convict him,” Imbroda said, as quoted by Europa Press.
The Spanish leader described Yahya Yahya’s remarks as “intolerable” and said that Melilla would respond to him “with the law in hand.” He also recounted recently running into the former senator in Melilla during the Eid al-Adha prayer, without recognizing him at first.
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Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are preparing a visit to Sebta and Melilla, a trip that, according to Madrid, will require no authorization from Morocco. No official date has yet been announced. Yahya Yahya and his committee, for their part, promise to launch their first actions after the Moroccan elections on 23 September.
