The Diplomat
Rafael Lasala, the Zaragoza judge investigating the alleged irregular entry into Spain of Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali, has summoned former Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya as an investigator.
“In this matter, our absolute respect for Justice and our wish that it can be solved as soon as possible”, declared yesterday the Government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodriguez, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
As reported yesterday by news agencies, the summons of Arancha González Laya, for which a date has not yet been set, comes at the request of the lawyer of the popular action, Antonio Urdiales, who described as “crucial” the statement of the former minister, and after the testimony of her former chief of staff, Camilo Villarino, in which he assured that he had received a call from González Laya last April 18 informing him that “the decision had been taken to admit Brahim Ghali for humanitarian reasons in Spain”, after which he gave him “a series of indications and instructions”.
In that same statement before the judge, which took place last September 13, Villarino assured that the decision to let Ghali enter did not start exclusively from the former minister. “She told me that the decision had been made. I don’t think it was her alone by herself and before herself. The Government is not a kingdom of taifas”, assured the former number two of the minister, who also specified that the chief of staff of the then first vice-president of the Government, Carmen Calvo, had called him on behalf of “her boss” to know the details about the entry of the Polisario leader. For all these reasons, the judge has also summoned as witnesses the former head of Calvo’s Cabinet.
The circumstances of Brahim Ghali’s entry into Spain generated a serious diplomatic crisis with Morocco. Brahim Ghali landed on April 18 at the military base in Zaragoza to be treated in a hospital in Logroño after contracting COVID-19. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, opposed his entry for fear of a diplomatic crisis with Morocco. The Saharawi leader left Spain on 2 June after testifying from hospital before the judge of the Audiencia Nacional Santiago Pedraz in connection with a complaint by the Saharawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADEH). The case was filed on June 29.
In response to the judge’s decision to summon Gonzalez Laya, the parliamentary spokesperson of the Popular Party, Cuca Gamarra, declared yesterday that “that order did not come from the Minister of Foreign Affairs” but that “the instructions came from above”. For this reason, she requested the appearance of the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, to “give the clues about who gave the order for this illegal entry”.
