Rabat – The Spanish police have arrested a supporter of the separatist Polisario Front in Bilbao for reportedly making terrorist threats against Morocco.
The Sahrawi man, who allegedly was posting threatening messages directed at Morocco on his Facebook page, was arrested by Spanish authorities on Tuesday, March 30, in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao, reports the Moroccan news outlet Le360.
According to the same sources, the man was also seen on two occasions wandering around the Moroccan consulate in Bilbao.
Following the man’s arrest, he was transferred to Madrid, for further investigation. Once the Spanish authorities investigate the case, the Polisario supporter will appear before the judiciary courts of Spain.
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The arrest comes at a time of heightened tensions between the Sahrawi diaspora and a variety of local authorities. In 2021 there have already been two attacks carried out by Polisario supporters on Moroccan consulates. Both attacks took place in the Netherlands. One was carried out against the Moroccan consulate in Utrecht, in January, while the other happened in Den Bosch, earlier in March.
As the separatist group is losing popular support on the international stage, they have chosen to target Moroccan consulates instead. Besides the incidents in the Netherlands, there was also an attack on a Moroccan consulate in Valencia, southeastern Spain.
Footage of the incident, shared on various social media platforms, showed the group of Polisario supporters entering the Moroccan consulate building and trying to hoist the flag of the self-styled, Polisario-governed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
Tensions boiled over also in Paris, France, in November 2020, when a group of Polisario supporters stormed a peaceful demonstration by the Moroccan diaspora. The Moroccan demonstrators were expressing solidarity with Rabat’s November 13 action against the separatist group in Guerguerat.
Following the incident, a group of French-Moroccan women filed a lawsuit against Polisario supporters who attacked Moroccan protesters during the demonstration.
