Polisario: Terrorism Charges before Spanish Supreme Court

The terrorism accusations against the Polisario in Spain embarrass the Front’s leader, Mohamed Abdelaziz, to the highest point, prompting him to lure three local NGOs into petitioning the Spanish Supreme Court to request the removal of the terrorist label against the Polisario.
The case dates back to 2011. The Spanish government had then recognized, posthumously, the Spanish national Raimundo Lopez-Penalver, killed in 1976 in Laayoune, as a victim of a terrorist attack staged by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front which is claiming the independence of Western Sahara.
The Spanish government had recognized many other Spaniards as terrorism victims for they died in various terrorist attacks, including the terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004 in Madrid, the assault against the Corona hotel in Aragon in 1979, in addition to attacks waged by Grapo and the Polisario Front.
Besides the death of Lopez-Penalver, the Polisario’s attack in Laayoune had claimed another victim.
Lopez-Penalver’s companion, Francisco Jimenez, had been seriously wounded and became deaf and blind for the rest of his life. He passed away in October 2005.
Polisario attacks against Spanish nationals had increased between 1976 and 1986. The attacks were mainly targeting the Canarian fishing boats operating in the sea waters between the coasts of Western Sahara and the Canary Islands. The high number of victims of these attacks had pushed their families to form their own association, ACAVITE, the Canary Islands Association of Terrorism Victims.
Now, in view of the Polisario’s very negative record in Spain, its initiative at the Spanish Supreme Court seems doomed to failure. Many observers doubt that the hired three Spanish NGOs, the CEAS-Sahara, Um Draiga and Aragon Observatory can make the Spanish court change its mind on the Polisario.