Brahim Ghali Case: Spanish Government Violates Its Penal Code – Lawyer –

The hosting by the Spanish government of the leader of the polisario separatists, the man named Brahim Ghali, on its territory under a fake identity and with false documents, constitutes a flagrant violation of the Spanish Penal Code, knowing that the accused is sued by the judiciary of the Iberian country for crimes against humanity, affirmed the lawyer and human rights activist, Abdelkebir Tabih. By invoking humanitarian considerations in an attempt to explain its attitude, the Spanish government implicitly admitted that it was aware of the identity fraud of the individual concerned and that his passport was forged, which is considered to be a crime as stipulated in paragraph 3 of article 451 of the Spanish Penal Code, he said in a reaction to the case of the man named Brahim Ghali. Tabih also noted that the Spanish Penal Code provides for a sentence ranging from 6 months to three years in prison against any individual having helped a person to escape the search carried out by the Authority or its agents for crimes against the humanity, crimes against persons, armed conflicts and terrorism. The information according to which the Spanish judiciary will hold a hearing on June 1 for the man named Brahim Ghali about the complaint filed against him for crimes against humanity is tangible proof that the government of Madrid has concealed the identity of a person prosecuted to ensure that he escapes the judicial inquiry, he said. Morocco has the right to wait for the position that the Spanish judiciary will take with regard to all the accomplices in this case and all those who have falsified the passport used by this man to access the Spanish territory, as well as who have ordered to stamp the fake passport when he knew it was forged, Tabih added. According to this lawyer, the Kingdom also has the right to know how the legal document authorizing this man to leave the Spanish territory will be given to him, while he had entered with a false document that the examining magistrate must confiscate.  The Spanish government is now faced with another dilemma with its judiciary, given that the man named Brahim Ghali is on the Spanish territory as an illegal immigrant, given access with a false passport, which legally imposes on the judiciary of this country to confiscate the false passport and to expel him like any immigrant who entered illegally, he explained. With this attitude which the Kingdom did not expect, the Spanish government has put the country’s justice system at an impasse, Tabih said. By insisting on the fact that the use by the Spanish government of the same process for the exfiltration of this man will only worsen the crisis, Morocco is alluding to the legal status of this individual, namely the status of an illegal immigrant who entered Spain with a false passport, he recalled. If the government of Spain wants to find a way out for this man through his exfiltration to Algiers, the foreign parliamentarians who come to Morocco as part of the observation of the independence of the judiciary, especially in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, must turn to the Spanish judiciary to apply the Spanish penal code and the law on illegal immigration in the case of Ghali, said this lawyer. He further argued that the Kingdom’s protest is explained by the fact that the Spanish government has hosted an enemy of Morocco who is responsible for the assassination and torture suffered by several Moroccans, in addition to the fact that it knows that he is being prosecuted in Spanish courts for crimes against humanity, as well as for having used an false official document from the Algerian state. This protest by the Kingdom is in line with diplomatic standards which commit friendly countries of another State not to welcome enemies of this State on their soil, to inform it in the worst cases and to provide it with explanations via diplomatic channels, he concluded.