Sahara: Khadijatou Mahmoud, the woman who accused Brahim Ghali of rape

Is the noose tightening around Brahim Ghali? Hospitalised for several days in Spain, for reasons of Covid, the leader of the Polisario Front is facing diplomatic pressure from Morocco, but also an accusation of rape. Indeed, Khadijatou Mahdmoud accuses Ghali of having raped her in 2010 and asks the Spanish justice to intervene to punish her « rapist ».

Even if he is ill, Brahim Ghali will have difficulty finding adequate sleep. In addition to the diplomatic pressure from Morocco on Spain, where he has been staying for more than a week, for « humanitarian reasons », the Polisario Front leader is also facing an accusation of rape, by a Sahrawi woman named Khadijatou Mahmoud. « I worked from 2006 to 2010 as a translator in the Tindouf camps. I was raped by the Polisario leader, » she said in the video, in which the victim asks Spain for justice.

« I am very grateful to this country (Spain) for giving me the opportunity to file a complaint, but I would be even more grateful if they would arrest him and bring him to justice, » said Khadijatou Mahmoud. Several human rights organisations have called for the arrest of Brahim Ghali for rape, torture and other equally serious crimes. « I don’t understand how they let him in. I would have liked to have seen him arrested and imprisoned, » she lamented.

The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged that her torturer arrived in a medical plane, chartered by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune under the name of Mohamed Benbatouche, to be treated for the Coronavirus in a hospital in Logroño.

It should be recalled that the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, and a number of leaders of the Polisario Front are being prosecuted for other cases related to detention, torture and enforced disappearances. In 2006, Brahim Ghali received a summons from the Spanish judiciary, which he did not attend.