The Diplomat
The Popular Party requested yesterday the appearance of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, and the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, in the Congress of Deputies for the judicial investigation carried out by a court of Zaragoza in which proceedings have been opened for the possible commission of a crime of false documentation and prevarication for the entry into Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali.
In two petitions registered in the Lower House, to which Europa Press had access, the ‘popular’ demand that the President of Congress, Meritxell Batet, call an extraordinary session of the Foreign Affairs Committee, with the appearance of the Minister González Laya “to report on the lies in parliamentary proceedings for having assured that the entry into Spain of Brahim Ghali had been legal”.
The PP also calls for an extraordinary session of the Defence Committee, in which Robles will report “on the decision to allow the illegal entry into Spain” of the Polisario Front leader, who was admitted to a hospital in Logroño for a month and a half to be treated for coronavirus.
The PP’s initiative comes after the 7th Court of Instruction of Zaragoza, which is investigating Ghali’s entry into Spain, opened proceedings to investigate the possible commission of a crime of false documentation and prevarication.
In the answers to a questionnaire from the head of the 7th Court of Instruction of Zaragoza, Rafael Lasala, about the entry of Ghali and his subsequent transfer to a hospital in Logroño, the head of Air Mobility, General José Luis Ortiz Cabañete, replies that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allowed the Polisario Front leader to enter Spain on 18 April without a passport and without providing information about the people on the plane of the Algerian Presidency, which landed at the Zaragoza Air Base, according to Heraldo de Aragón.
Yesterday, the Minister of Defence disassociated her Department from the possible irregular entry of the Polisario Front leader into Spain because it does not have “any kind of competence” in the reception of a “state aircraft”, reports Europa Press.
“We assume everything that the Air Force has said,” he said, referring to the report by General Ortiz Cañabate, while indicating that the Air Force limits itself to “watching over the airspace” and that “on the fly” and “on the ground” it learned of the circumstances of the arrival of the Algerian aircraft in which Ghali was travelling. “I can only accept and endorse what the Air Force has said,” Robles reiterated in statements to the media after chairing the conference 1981-2021: 40 years of commitment and active participation in NATO.
The minister, who gave “full support” to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, added that she is “sure” that the department headed by Arancha González Laya “acted as it should” and pointed out that “we must not forget” that it was a “state” aircraft that “is supposed to have all the permits”.
