The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, yesterday avoided clarifying, from New York, whether it was he who authorised the entry into Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, after the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, was charged in relation to this case.
Sánchez appeared before journalists at a press conference on the occasion of his participation in the United Nations General Assembly, and when asked who had given the order to receive Ghali in a hospital in Logroño, he replied that “there was a humanitarian request to save the life of a person who was about to die”, in reference to the fact that the Polisario leader had COVID-19.
According to the head of the Spanish government, what was done was “to give a humanitarian response to a person who was about to die”. “The Spanish government did what it had to do, to respond to this humanitarian issue, and it did so as it should, in accordance with the law”, he affirmed, avoiding answering whether it was he who gave the final authorisation for the reception of the Polisario leader.
From the PP, its spokespersons have been insisting on demanding to know “who is the X” in the Ghali case, after it became known on Tuesday that the head of the Court of Instruction Number 7 of Zaragoza, Rafael Lasala, has summoned the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha González Laya as an investigator to try to determine whether there was a crime of prevarication in the entry and exit of Brahim Ghali from Spain.
Also yesterday, the judge asked the State Attorney’s Office whether it will assume the defence of González Laya. Although he agreed to charge the former minister, he has not yet set a date for her statement in court.
The summons of González Laya as a defendant under investigation was requested on 14 September by the lawyer Juan Carlos Navarro, and his request was supported by the other prosecution, led by Antonio Urdiales.
