Spanish Court Summons Polisario Leader over Torture and Kidnapping Charges

The leader of the Polisario separatists, so-called Brahim Ghali, who is currently admitted in a hospital in Logrono in Spain, has been summoned to appear Wednesday before a Spanish court over torture and kidnapping charges, the plaintiff told MAP on Monday. This decision, which takes place following a complaint filed by Fadel Breika, was also confirmed by judicial sources in Madrid, according to local media. Breika, whose complaint was admitted by the Spanish courts last April, accuses the leader of the separatists of being responsible for his kidnapping during the period from June 18, 2019 to November 10 of the same year. “I was kidnapped for almost five months and tortured in the jails of Tindouf camps for the simple reason of having asked for clarifications regarding the fate of Ahmed Khalid, who was kidnapped by the Algerian secret service since January 2019”, Breika told MAP. “Moreover, I denounced in social media the enlistment of child soldiers by the Polisario front as well as the violent acts of its leaders,” he added. “Through this complaint and the appearance of this criminal and other leaders of the Polisario before the justice, I demand that justice be done to all the victims of the atrocities of the Polisario,” he said. The so-called Brahim Ghali, who entered Spain with a fake Algerian identity and a fake passport, is the subject of several complaints in Spain for rape, torture, genocide and kidnapping. An arrest warrant was issued against him by the Spanish authorities in 2008. In 2013, he was indicted by the Spanish justice.