schema:articleBody
| - A top Spanish court denied Wednesday it has summoned the leader of the Western Saharan independence movement, who is being treated in Spain for Covid-19, to answer allegations of torture. A legal source directly involved in the case told AFP on Monday that Brahim Ghali, who leads the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, had been summoned to appear before the high court on Wednesday, after a dissident member of the Front made the accusations against him. Several Spanish media outlets also reported the same information. But a spokesman for the high court told AFP that Ghali "had not been summoned" and instead the court "had only asked police to locate and verify that he is in Spain." Local press reports say Ghali has been receiving treatment at a hospital in Logrono, northern Spain, since late April. Spain's foreign minister said only that Ghali had been taken to Spain "for strictly humanitarian reasons" to receive medical care. She declined to give further details. "The judge asked police to verify that this person who is said to be in hospital in Logrono is in fact him," the court spokesman said. Ghali's presence in Spain has been a diplomatic headache for the government, even though Madrid insists he was allowed in on strictly humanitarian grounds. Last month Morocco summoned the Spanish ambassador to complain about Ghali's presence there. The status of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony which the United Nations classifies as a "non-self-governing territory", has for decades pitted Morocco against the Polisario, who demand a referendum on an independent state. dbh-mg/ds/dl
|