The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs allowed the Polisario Front leader, Brahim Ghali, 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 the head of Air Mobility, General José Luis Ortiz Cabañete.
According to a report in the Heraldo de Aragón, picked up by Europa Press, this is one of the answers given by the head of the Zaragoza Air Base at the time, to the questions in a questionnaire sent by the head of Investigation Court number 7 in Zaragoza, Rafael Lasala, about Ghali’s entry and his subsequent transfer to a hospital in Logroño.
Ortiz Cabañete refers that the plane landed at 7.25 p.m., and that it was taken to the military platform, “a customary practice for State aircraft”. Under the protection of the Kingdom of Spain “on a permanent basis” due to “the diplomatic relationship that exists with the Republic of Algeria, it was authorised to land in our country”.
In his answers, Ortiz Cabañete also points out that, once the orders from the Air Force General Staff had been received from the Foreign Ministry, the plane’s personnel did not go through passport controls or customs formalities, so it was not known who they were. It was reported by telephone that one of the passengers was ill and was Algerian. An ambulance arrived at the base to pick him up, although it does not specify whether he was from the Aragon Health Service or from La Rioja. The patient was transferred to the San Pedro Hospital in Logroño.
The Court, which is investigating Ghali’s entry into Spain, has opened proceedings to investigate the possible commission of a crime of false documentation and, perhaps, another of prevarication.ccording to judicial sources reported to Europa Press, Judge Rafael Lasala has sent a letter rogatory to the Central Court of Instruction number 5 of the Audiencia Nacional, in which he asks for some documents and reports.
On 18 April, Brahim Ghali arrived in Spain in a plane belonging to the Algerian Presidency, which landed at the Zaragoza Air Base, and was transferred in an ambulance to the San Pedro Hospital in Logroño, where he was admitted for a month and a half to be treated for covid-19. Likewise, by means of an official letter, Judge Lasala requested information from the Aragon Health Department about Ghali’s transfer to the San Pedro Hospital in Logroño.
