• Justice The judge imputes former Minister Arancha González Laya for the entry of Brahim Ghali into Spain

  • Courts ask that Carmen Calvo also appear before the judge for the entry of Brahim Ghali into Spain

The Government of

La Rioja

began preparing the arrival in

Spain

of the leader of

the Polisario Front

, Brahim Ghali, two days before he landed at the

Zaragoza airport

on April 18.

This is

stated in the report that the

Judicial Police

of the

National Police

of

Logroño

has referred to the magistrate investigating the entry into the country of the Saharawi historic leader.

According to the report, to which this newspaper has had access, the head of the Regional Executive Presidency Cabinet,

Eliseo Pérez Sastre

, asked the hospital manager to organize everything before the imminent arrival of a "very important" patient who had to be treated. for "humanitarian reasons".

"On April 16, the hospital manager tells him - to the head of Transplants at the hospital center - that he will probably need a free bed in the ICU for a covid patient who comes from abroad but does not know the exact day he was going to arrive, possibly on the 17th or 18th ", indicates the police statement from the Transplant and Critical Care Coordinator of

the San Pedro

de Logroño

Hospital

.

Likewise, he also assured that on the same day 16 he received a WhatsApp from the manager in which, he indicates, "he tells him that a friend of his is asking for an ICU bed for a covid patient who comes from abroad."

Throughout the days that Ghali spent hospitalized, the report continues, "the manager of the patient's condition reported daily since he had requested it to do so."

In his appearance before the agents, the hospital manager acknowledged that Pérez Sastre was the person who informed him of the arrival of the Polisario Front leader for "humanitarian reasons" and asked him, he said, "to be admitted to the hospital."

The head of the

Court of Instruction number 7

of

Zaragoza

,

Rafael Lasala

, already has this dossier from the

Provincial Information Brigade

of La Rioja.

In addition, the instructor has summoned

Susana Crisóstomo

, Cabinet Director of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and

María Isabel Valldecabres

, who was chief of staff of the then Vice President of the Government, Carmen Calvo,

to testify as witnesses

.

In a ruling issued on September 24, the judge set these statements by Valldecabres and Crisóstomo for October 18 at 12:30 and 13:00, respectively.

The lawyer representing the popular prosecution in this case, Antonio Urdiales, also requested Carmen Calvo herself to appear as a witness, but the judge prefers to wait for the result of the statements by Valldecabres and Crisóstomo before deciding on this petition.

The judge has already agreed to summon the then Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, as investigated, who will testify on October 4 at 1:00 p.m.

The then technical secretary general of the ministry,

José María Muriel Palomino

, who was fired on July 21 by the new minister, José Manuel Albares, will also appear as a witness on October 4.

The judge investigates Ghali's arrival at the

Zaragoza Air Base

on April 16 in a medicalized plane, accompanied by another person, to be treated for the severe covid that he suffered at the San Pedro de Logroño Hospital, where he was transferred in an ambulance. of the Health service of La Rioja.

The former chief of staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

Camilo Villarino

, admitted before the judge in Zaragoza on September 13 that he received instructions from the former minister to facilitate the entry into the country of Ghali with the "maximum discretion", since the disclosure Publicity of the trip could cause a "damage" to the international relations of the country.

That same day, the Lieutenant General and Second Chief of the Air Staff

Francisco Fernández

, in his capacity as a witness, confirmed to the judge that Villarino asked him by WhatsApp that upon arrival of the plane in Zaragoza, passport control should not be carried out on the travelers and who wrote the phrase: "Who has to know, already knows."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Saragossa

  • Carmen Calvo

  • Coronavirus

  • WhatsApp

  • Logroño

  • Arancha González Laya

  • Spain

  • Justice

Foreign The judge imputes former Minister Arancha González Laya for the entry of Brahim Ghali into Spain

Justice They ask that Carmen Calvo also appear before the judge for the entry of Brahim Ghali into Spain

Politics Sánchez supports Laya and defends that Ghali was taken in "in accordance with the law"

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