The Diplomat
The lawyer Antonio Urdiales, who is the public prosecutor in the Ghali case, will ask the judge that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, testify in the investigation phase as an investigated person.
This is what Urdiales said yesterday at the gates of the Court of Instruction number 7 of Zaragoza, which investigates the alleged illegal entry of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, into Spain through the Zaragoza Air Base, on the 18th of April, to be treated later in a hospital in Logroño.
The head of the court, Rafel Lasala, yesterday took statements from the former director of González Laya’s Cabinet in the Foreign Office, as a defendant in the case, and Lieutenant General Francisco Javier Fernández Sánchez, second in command of the Spanish Air Force, as a witness.
After attending the declarations of both, Urdiales told journalists that Villarino stated “that he received a call from González Laya”, which is why the lawyer is now demanding that the former minister be summoned to testify as an investigator.
According to the lawyer for the private prosecution, in their appearance before the judge, Villarino and Fernández Sánchez “have tried to justify the acts of legality”. The lieutenant general, said Urdiales, stated that Villarino “did not tell him exactly who the passenger was” on the international flight that landed at the Zaragoza Air Base on 18 April.
Urdiales pointed out that “If the Foreign Ministry says that he has a diplomatic passport”, the Ministry of Defence “is not obliged” to demand that the holder of the document identify himself.
Brahim Ghali arrived on 18 April in an Algerian plane at the Zaragoza Air Base, without passing border controls or documentation, from where he left in an ambulance to the San Pedro Hospital in Logroño, and was admitted to the health centre under the name of Mohamed Benbatouche. On 2 June he left the country from Pamplona.
Urdiales wants the circumstances of Ghali’s entry and exit to be clarified, whether there has been a possible cover-up or prevarication, and indicated to Europa Press that the Polisario leader, according to a report by the chief colonel of the Guardia Civil of Navarre, on his departure from Spain passed through the authorities’ room at Noain Airport, receiving special treatment that did not correspond to him and, once again, without controls.
The lawyer who is the public prosecutor in the Ghali case will ask the judge for Arancha González Laya to testify as an investigator.
