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Rabat – A judge in charge of the Polisario leader case in the Spanish city of Zaragoza has requested information from Algeria about its role in issuing the fake passport that Polisario leader Brahim Ghali used to travel to Spain for hospitalization in 2021.
Ghali, who entered Spanish territory last year in April to receive medical treatment, used fake Algerian documents under the name of Mohammed ben Battouch to avoid a series of lawsuits in Spain.
A number of Polisario’s victims and families of victims, including Spanish citizens, had filed complaints accusing the separatist leader of war crimes and rape.
Europa Press reported on Friday that judge Rafael Lasala agreed to a request from the Prosecutor Office to allow a rogatory commission to investigate Algeria’s involvement in issuing the fake passport that allowed Ghali to enter Spain.
The judge notably sent Algerian authorities a copy of the passport “to help clarify the facts under investigation,” Europa Press noted, adding that the Spanish judge has decided to extend the investigation for another six months to investigate possible false documentation charges against Ghali.
In April, the judge asked the Polisario Front to provide Spanish government information about Ghali’s son Louali Sid El Mustafa for questioning.
The Polisario Front denied access to the requested information, however, stating that Louali is not part of the Sahrawi delegation in Spain and claiming that they don’t know where he resides.
In August, Spain’s Transparency and Good Governance Council gave the Spanish government 10 business days to provide more clarifications about when and how Ghali was authorized to enter Spain.
The council also demanded that the government offer more information about the instructions that made it possible for Ghali to enter Spanish territory with a fake passport and under a false identity.
Reports of Spain colluding with Algeria to host Ghali angered Morocco, which protested the move by withdrawing its ambassador from Madrid.
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Relations between Rabat and Madrid only normalized this past March after the Spanish government announced its support for Morocco’s stance in the decades-old dispute over Western Sahara.
As well as igniting a diplomatic feud with Morocco, Spain’s hosting of Ghali notably angered people who had filed complaints against the Polisario leader for several serious crimes, including rape.
Sahrawi refugee and activist Khadijatou Mahmoud continues to appeal the Spanish judiciary about her case.
The activist, who lives in Spain, maintains that Ghali raped her in 2010 at the embassy of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Algiers, where he served as an “ambassador.”
Having filed a complaint in Spain against Ghali in 2013, Mahmoud said she was left shocked and disappointed when Spanish authorities allowed the Polisario leader to enter and leave leave the European country last year without holding him accountable fo raping her as well as for his role in other first-degree crimes like murder and forced disappearances.
