Rabat – Spain deported Polisario separatist Hussein Bachir Brahim to Morocco on January 17 after rejecting his asylum request.
Morocco had issued an arrest warrant for the pro-Polisario separatist for his alleged involvement in the killing of Amazigh (Berber) activist Omar El Khalek, who was beaten to death by pro-Polisario students in January 2016.
The Polisario Front condemned the deportation of the separatist to Morocco, claiming that it violates international asylum laws.
Spanish news outlets reported Polisario’s condemnation, acknowledging that the separatist fled Moroccan prosecution.
EFE spoke with Hamdi Mansor, a Polisario delegate in the Canary Islands, who said that Brahim was a law student at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir.
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Mansor said that Spanish police transferred the suspect “without complying with the compulsory procedure to present it before the judicial authorities or process his request for political asylum.”
The Polisario delegate said that the move is “absolutely opposed to what is established by Spanish norms and international agreements signed by Spain for the protection and asylum of people persecuted for political reasons.”
However, suspects with an arrest warrant are traditionally subject to deportation across the globe.
After Spain deported Brahim last week to Nador in northeast Morocco, Morocco transferred the suspect to Loudaya prison in Marrakech. He then appeared before the public prosecutor in Marrakech.
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In 2017, the Marrakech Criminal Court sentenced five suspects to 10 years in prison and 11 others to three years each for the premeditated murder of the Amazigh activists.
Three of the accused received additional charges for carrying weapons without legitimate justification and attacking the property of others.
The clashes, which erupted between Sahrawi and Amazigh students at the Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences in 2016 injured five other people.
Khalek, also known as “Izem” meaning lion in Tamazight (Berber), was attacked by pro-Polisario students who were armed with knives. Khalek was a native of a village near Tinghir, southeastern Morocco. The activist died five days after suffering serious injuries.
