Spanish Justice after one of the Polisario’s Strongmen

Spanish justice is after Brahim Ghali, one of the henchmen of the Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz. The current Ambassador of the so-called Sahrawi Republic “SADR” to Algiers and former defense minister may actually be prosecuted for “rape and crimes against humanity.” A Sahraoui woman, born in the Tindouf camps in south western Algeria, who had worked as an employee in the “protocol service” of the Polisario and who currently lives in Spain, claimed that Ghali had harassed and raped her during a visit she had paid to Algiers to apply for an entry visa to Spain. The victim, Jediyetu Mahmud Mohamed Zubair, filed on January 14 a complaint with the Audiencia Nacional, the Spanish national Court, against Brahim Ghali and the son of Prime Minister of the SADR, Abdelkader Taleb Omar. She is assisted by lawyer Agustin Fernandez de la Cruz and supported by the Spanish-Sahraoui Association “Hiwar.” On Tuesday, the canari-Sahraoui forum, an association gathering citizens of Western Sahara and of the Canary Islands, has condemned in the strongest terms the violations and abuses committed by Ghali against Jediyetu. The association expressed solidarity with the victim and “strongly denounced these heinous acts and systematic violations of women’s rights in the Tindouf camps,” committed “without any respect for human rights.”

At a press conference last week in Madrid, Jediyatu unveiled details of her misadventure with Brahim Ghali. While she deplored the silence of Spain-based associations on Ghali’s assault, Jediyatu appealed to human rights NGOs and advocates to support her. Brahim Ghali is facing another complaint for genocide and human rights violations filed in 2007 by other Sahraoui victims from Tindouf. Other leaders of the Polisario and Algerian senior military officers are the subject of complaints for “genocide, murder, injury, illegal detention, terrorism, torture and disappearances.” These complaints were all filed at the Audiencia Nacional. For his part, the President of the Seville-based “Hiwar” association, Abderrahim Berdiji, said his association has a list of Sahraouis living in Spain who are willing to testify before the Spanish court.