ASADEDH denuncia la “nueva espiral de represión” de la dirección del Frente Polisario contra activistas saharauis

The Saharawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADEDH) has strongly condemned the "new spiral of repression" carried out by the leadership of the Polisario Front against Saharawi anti-corruption activists in the Tindouf camps with the "approval of the Algerian authorities". 

ASADEDH issued an official statement in which it denounced this and the arrest and torture of a Spanish citizen of Saharawi origin and corruption activist, Mohammed Salem uld Souid, "under the eyes of the Algerian military at the military entry post of the Algerian town of Tindouf".

The official statement of ASADEDH is reproduced below:

We, the Saharawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights, deplore and denounce the new spiral of repression undertaken by the leadership of the Polisario Front, with the approval of the Algerian authorities, against Saharawi anti-corruption activists in the Tindouf camps.

In the context of this new wave of unprecedented repression, the Spanish citizen of Saharawi origin and anti-corruption activist Mohammed Salem uld Souid was arrested and tortured by members of the security of the Polisario Front under the eyes of the Algerian military at the military post of entry of the Algerian city of Tindouf, who were the ones who handed him over to the members of the Polisario security after trying to take refuge in this military post, when he was about to travel to Hernani (Guipúzcoa) on 30 April 2023, place of his usual residence with his sister Jifina Malainin Souid and his nephews. He was then taken to an unknown place in Rabuni (administrative capital of the Polisario Front), his relatives informed us.

It should be noted that the kidnapped by the Polisario Salem Malainin uld Souid is the nephew of the coordinator of the Saharawi Movement for Peace (MSP) in the region of Dakhla and Rio de Oro, Abdallahi Berray.

In view of these serious events against our defenceless population in the Tindouf camps, we demand the immediate intervention of the Spanish consular authorities to know the whereabouts of Salem Malainin, and we request the solidarity of all civil society and human rights organisations. 

At the same time we hold the leadership of the Polisario Front and the Algerian authorities responsible for these vile acts against defenceless civilians on their territory.

SAHARAWI ASSOCIATION FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS.