Spanish court throws out complaint against Polisario leader

The Spanish Supreme Court dismissed, on Friday, a complaint against the Polisario leader, Brahim Ghali, filed in February 2022 by the Sahrawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADEH).

The highest court states that the «complaint was outside the statute of limitations, as the alleged events occurred in 1990, which fell outside the 20-year statute of limitations».

The Court thus confirms the decision made by the National Court in October 2021. The court had then ruled that the facts reported by ASADEH, which occurred between 1974 and 1990, are time-barred according to the 1973 Penal Code, dismissing the case. The NGO had then reacted by filing an appeal with the Supreme Court.

ASADEH had asked the National Court to prosecute the Polisario leader «for alleged crimes of genocide committed through specific acts of torture on several victims in the secret prisons of the Polisario Front in Tindouf».