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The judge concludes the investigation into the alleged torture of Saharawi activist Fadel Breica without prosecuting Ghali

It has not been proven that the leader of the Polisario Front "ordered to undermine the integrity" of Breica "since there was no direct testimony".

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The judge concludes the investigation into the alleged torture of Saharawi activist Fadel Breica without prosecuting Ghali

It has not been proven that the leader of the Polisario Front "ordered to undermine the integrity" of Breica "since there was no direct testimony"

MADRID, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz has agreed to the conclusion of the summary in the case opened by the complaint presented by the Saharawi activist of Spanish nationality Fadel Breica for the torture he suffered at the hands of the Polisario Front, the movement led by Brahim Ghali, whom you have decided not to prosecute.

In an order from this same Tuesday, to which Europa Press has had access, the head of the Central Investigating Court Number 5 agrees to what was requested by the Prosecutor's Office, highlights the absence of "rational indications of criminality" and submits the case to the Chamber Criminal, which must decide whether to file or decide to continue the case.

The instructor explains that "from the procedures carried out, rational indications of criminality cannot be followed in relation to the facts investigated regarding the commission of the crimes accused" by Breica. Thus, he points out that the practical testimonials are based on mere unverified references, materializing in subjective appreciations and in cases that do not coincide with the dates and moments indicated in the facts.

And it is that, adds Pedraz, it has not been verified that Brahim Ghali "ordered or participated in order to undermine the integrity of the complainant (torture) in the absence of direct testimony or other diligence to confirm it."

"With this, after carrying out all the procedures that have been able to be carried out to verify the crime, the participation that the investigated parties have had and the circumstances that have occurred in their commission and not finding any other indicated, it is appropriate to conclude as determined by articles 622 and 623 of the Criminal Procedure Law", concludes Pedraz.

This decision by the judge comes after he listened on October 24 to Abba Bouzeid, a witness proposed by Breica who confirmed the complaint presented by the latter for the torture he suffered at the hands of the Polisario Front. It was the last pending procedure before Pedraz made a decision on the future of the cause.

Legal sources explained to Europa Press that, in his statement before the magistrate, Bouzeid gave details about the alleged abuse suffered by Breica, confirming what the activist denounced in his complaint. In it, Breica claimed to have suffered beatings and electric shocks, among other practices, while he was being held in clandestine detention centers.

Specifically, Breica accuses Brahim Ghali of crimes of illegal detention, torture and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 2019 in the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf. According to him, when he arrived there, Polisario agents threatened him to leave but, far from doing so, his protests took him to the aforementioned centers.

The witness, who arrived at the center before Breica, explained that he had no relationship with the activist until they both met during their stay. There, and although they did not share a room since the center had isolated cells, Bouzeid would have been an eyewitness of the torture that Breica suffered, and that would have been repeated on up to three different occasions.

Bouzeid, a blogger who wrote for a local newspaper, explained that he got to talk to the activist during his stay in prison. According to the witness's account, the abuses to which Breica would have been subjected were incontestable.

In his statement before Pedraz --on June 29, 2021--, Breica insisted that he was tortured for six months in a secret prison of the Polisario Front, pointing to Ghali as his top culprit. In addition, he denounced that he would not be the only victim, maintaining that torture would be a common practice of the Polisario Front among the Saharawi refugees, while reproaching Algeria for allowing this in its territory.

Breica's complaint was the only one that was still alive against the head of the Polisario in the National Court. The judicial headquarters archived the one formulated by the Saharawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADEDH) against Ghali and 27 other people for crimes of genocide in relation to acts allegedly committed against members of the Saharawi people between 1975 and 1990.

Pedraz pointed out about this second complaint that there was a "manifest insufficiency" of evidence that Ghali participated in the alleged torture. ASADEH denounced that agents of the Polisario, including Ghali, and of the Algerian security committed numerous abuses, which they described as torture, in the Saharawi refugee camps located in Tindouf (Algeria).

Ghali declared in the AN on June 1, 2021 to deny any involvement in the Human Rights violations for which he is accused. His defense then argued that, as Minister of Defense of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), he was dedicated "exclusively" to the war against Morocco, for which reason "he was oblivious to any detention center", where the torture would have occurred. .

For his part, the head of Investigating Court Number 7 of Zaragoza, Rafael Lasala, continues to investigate Ghali's entry into Spain on April 18, 2021, but is now focused on determining whether the Polisario leader used a false passport to identify himself to his arrival at the San Pedro de Logroño hospital, where he was admitted for coronavirus.