Ghali habría llegado a España sin pasar el control de pasaportes
The investigating court number 7 of Zaragoza, the court in charge of investigating the entry into Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has opened proceedings for the possible offence of false documentation and prevarication.
According to judicial sources, Judge Rafael Lasala has sent a letter rogatory to the Central Investigation Court number 5 of the Audiencia Nacional, from where he is demanding documents and reports. According to the complaint, made by the lawyer Antonio Urdiales Gálvez, the plane that transported Ghali to a base in Zaragoza had orders to land without going through a security check. In this regard, the general of the head of air mobility, José Luis Ortiz-Cañavate, alleges that he had orders not to ask for the identity of the passengers on the Algerian plane.
According to the head of air mobility, "orders were received by telephone that the personnel travelling on the plane should not pass through passport control or customs, so the identity of the people on board is unknown". In addition, Ortiz-Cañavate stated that "information was received that a patient with an Algerian diplomatic passport was travelling on the plane, who was on a medical stretcher and was accompanied by a person".
According to his statement, Ortiz-Cañavate points out that these orders came "from the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation". However, the judicial report admits that the flight did have authorisation to land at the military base in Zaragoza under the premise "State aircraft" and had the protection of "permanent diplomatic authorisation" that had been granted by Spain to the Algerian government.
In this context, the Aragonese base has an operational procedure whereby all passengers arriving from foreign aircraft must undergo passport control, monitored by the State Security Forces and Corps of the civilian airport itself, as stipulated in the regulations established by a general instruction of the Air Force.
In view of this situation, the Foreign Ministry has reported that the procedure carried out in Spain before the arrival of aircraft at the Torrejón Air Base is in line with this type of process, since passengers arriving on official flights "do not undergo passport control" and would thus have "the relevant authorisations". The Foreign Ministry adds that "it is a diplomatic courtesy" that is carried out in "many countries", although passengers are obliged to carry them in case "it is required by the competent authority".
This process would mean that Ghali's diplomatic cover exempted him from passport control. The leader would have arrived in Spain with his own documents, but would have registered at the Logroño Hospital under the name of Mohammed Ben Bettouch, a false name.
Brahim Ghali's entry into Spain for health care sparked an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco. The Polisario leader is accused of alleged crimes of torture, genocide, illegal detention and disappearances. On 1 June, the judge of the Audiencia Nacional, Santiago Pedraz, refused to impose any precautionary measures against Ghali after the leader denied before the judge the alleged crimes of which he was accused.
