Morocco sends spies to Spain to monitor hospitalized Sahrawi leader

USPA NEWS - The Government of Morocco has deployed on Spanish soil an intelligence team in charge of monitoring the San Pedro hospital in Logroño (northern Spain), where the General Secretary of the Polisario Front, Brahim Gali, is admitted. The operation, which operates in the shadows, has orders to identify all the visits that Gali receives, who is protected by the Spanish Police and between great security measures on the fifth floor of the hospital complex.

There are at least eight Moroccan spies, according to USPA News on Saturday 29 May. The surroundings of the San Pedro hospital in Logroño are these days a reflection of the conflict that the Polisario Front faces with the Government of Morocco. The Sahrawis denounce that, since they ceased to be a Spanish colony 48 years ago, their territory is still occupied by the Moroccan Army. The Polisario Front demands the independence of the former Spanish Sahara, while the Government of Rabat refuses to grant it.

The presence of Brahim Gali in Spain, where he arrived on April 18 aboard a Spanish military plane to be treated for COVID-19, led to an unprecedented diplomatic conflict between Morocco and Spain, when at least 8,000 people invaded the Spanish city of Ceuta, on the North African coast. Almost all of them have returned to Morocco voluntarily or expelled by the Spanish authorities. Only unaccompanied minors, just over 1,000, remain in Spain under the supervision of the Spanish authorities, who try to certify their ages and contact their families to return them to Morocco.

Now the tension has moved to Logroño. In front of the San Pedro hospital, a flower stand shows its support for Brahim Gali. Its promoters have formed the number 48 with bouquets of flowers, the years that the former Spanish Sahara claims to have been occupied by Morocco. The post is closely watched by a couple of Moroccan spies. Other pairs of Moroccan intelligence agents are strategically distributed on the corners around the hospital. His boss controls the operation from the hospital lobby. A security cordon established by Spain prevents access to the interior of the center to anyone who does not have a special pass, Spanish authorities informed USPA News.

Brahim Gali remains isolated in a room on the fifth floor of the hospital. A single doctor controls his evolution, assisted by two nurses. Always the same. The Spanish Government does not want surprises. Gali must testify on Wednesday before the judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz, who instructs the complaint filed against the general secretary of the Polisario Front by the Saharawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights, which accuses him of genocide in competition with murder, injuries, illegal detention, terrorism, torture and disappearances. In another case, the activist Fadel Mihdi Breica accuses him of illegal detention, torture and against humanity. Brahim Gali is not currently in custody.

His future is uncertain. There is still no forecast when he will leave the hospital. It will depend on the judge Santiago Pedraz that he can return to Algeria, where he is a refugee, or must remain in Spain. While he arrives that moment, the Moroccan spies watch that he remains in the San Pedro hospital and that he does not get help from his supporters. And they try to hide from the Spanish agents who, also displaced to Logroño, try to identify them.