THE leader of the Western Sahara independence movement, Brahim Ghali, landed in Algiers early yesterday after his hospitalization in Spain for more than a month triggered a diplomatic row between Spain and Morocco.
“He arrived safe and sound,” said Jalil Mohamed, the Polisario Front’s spokesman in Spain.
Ghali flew to Algeria from Pamplona in northern Spain at 1:40 a.m. local time on Wednesday on an officially chartered private plane, the spokesman said.
Ghali, who was suffering a serious bout of COVID-19, had been admitted to a Spanish hospital in April on humanitarian grounds, the Madrid government said.
He left Spain several hours after appearing remotely in a hearing with Spanish high court on a war crime case. Following the hearing, judges did not impose any restrictions on the Polisario leader and allowed him to leave the country.
The Algeria-backed Polisario Front is fighting for the independence of Western Sahara, which was a Spanish colony until the mid-1970s and is claimed by Morocco.
Spain’s decision to admit Ghali to a hospital in the northern Spanish city of Logrono infuriated Morocco.
Moroccan officials suggested that last month’s sudden influx of migrants to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta after security forces appeared to loosen border controls was a form of retaliation.
