<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>In December 1779, the writer, historian, traveller and Moroccan plenipotentiary ambassador to Spain, Mohamed Ben Otomán Al Meknasi, decided to intercede for the life of an “unhappy” Spanish soldier who had been sentenced to death in Cadiz for desertion. He finally succeeded, thanks to his good offices with King Charles III and the proximity of the Christmas season, which allowed the execution to be postponed just at the right time.</strong></h4> The Moroccan ambassador began his mission in Spain with the aim of obtaining the signature of the Convention of Aranjuez, a treaty of friendship and trade between Spain and Morocco that was signed on May 30, 1780 at the royal site of Aranjuez (Madrid) by the Secretary of State (Minister of Foreign Affairs in the language of the time), the Count of Floridablanca, representing Charles III, and by the ambassador Mohamed Ben Otomán, on behalf of Sultan Mohamed III. In addition to the signing of the agreement, as the prestigious Spanish Arabist and historian Mariano Arribas Palau (1917-2002) noted, Ben Otomán devoted himself to trying to obtain the freedom of numerous Muslim captives, especially Moroccans, held by the Spanish authorities. It was at that same time when, during a visit to Cadiz, the ambassador received a letter in December 1779 signed by Juan de Sierra, father of the lawyer Antonio de Sierra, in which he requested the support of Ben Otomán to save the life of the soldier José de Ortega, of the Infantry Regiment of Galicia, who had been sentenced to death in this Andalusian city for the crime of desertion. In the letter, which was presented as the last resort to prevent what seemed inevitable, Juan de Sierra asked the “most excellent ambassador” (on behalf of his son) to place “under his protection (sic)” the “unfortunate prisoner Joseph de Ortega, soldier of the Infantry Regiment of Galicia, who for the crime of desertion had been sentenced to the ordinary death penalty.” Following the letter, the Moroccan ambassador immediately wrote to the captain general of the province of Cadiz to ask him to postpone the execution in order to give him time to get to Madrid to request a pardon from Charles III. But there was a problem: according to the Military Ordinance, the captain general did not have the authority to postpone the execution of a death sentence for too long. <h5><strong>The Christmas suspension</strong></h5> However, “the proximity of Christmas, the time when the course of the cases was suspended, gave him a margin of time that, if taken advantage of, could lead to the temporary suspension of the sentence, pending the decision of the King,” recalled Professor Arribas. In these circumstances, and in order to gain time, the lawyer advised the Moroccan ambassador, “if Your Excellency’s mercy is dedicated to continuing your protection for the benefit of this unfortunate prisoner,” to make his intentions known to the Count of Riela, Minister of War, “in advance” and without waiting for his arrival in Madrid. The letter from Juan de Sierra, dated in Puerto de Santa Maria on December 24, 1779, did not reach the hands of Ben Otomán until a few days after his arrival in Madrid, which took place on January 12, 1780. Therefore, the ambassador arrived at the Villa y Corte without having made any prior request to the Count of Riela. However, the death sentence was not carried out and the ambassador still had time to meet on 21 January at the Royal Palace of El Pardo (seat of the Court) with the Count of Floridablanca, whom he asked to mediate with the King to obtain a pardon. This meeting, the letter sent the next day to Floridablanca with the same request (which included a memorial from the soldier condemned to death) and the subsequent delivery to the Secretary of State of Juan Sierra's letter, bore fruit. Finally, Floridablanca personally discussed this matter with Charles III on 30 January 1780, during his meeting with the King. The arguments of Juan Sierra and Mohamed Ben Otomán must have influenced the mind of the Monarch, who immediately ordered the Count of Riela to suspend the execution of the prisoner in order to give him time to make a definitive decision. Finally, Charles III agreed to the ambassador's request for pardon and spared José de Ortega's life, commuting his death sentence to ten years of service in a regiment in America. On March 30, 1780, Mohamed Ben Otomán went to El Pardo to express his gratitude to the Count of Floridablanca. It so happens that Ortega was not the only beneficiary of the ambassador's benevolence, since between June and July of the same year (and, therefore, outside the context of Christmas) he again successfully interceded on behalf of the silversmith Vicente Torregrosa, sentenced to death in Cartagena for having manufactured counterfeit coins. Ben Otomán, who had mediated to save the life of "this unfortunate man" in consideration of "his extended family", finally obtained the pardon for Torregrosa at the very last minute, when the prisoner was already in the chapel and about to be executed.
