A Sahrawi of Spanish nationality has been kidnapped by the Polisario with the complicity of Algeria on the border with Morocco for more than 5 days. The militia would have tortured the Spaniard in a prison according to an association for the defense of human rights.
The Polisario separatist group has been leading a campaign of arrests and torture for several days targeting anyone showing signs of defiance or disagreement with its policy and strategy in the Tindouf camps.
These camps located in Algeria but run de facto by the Polisario, are organized as a state within the State, a sort of decentralized region of Algeria where the Polisario, a separatist armed militia from Morocco, is the ultimate master.
Disappeared on April 30, the Spanish activist Mohamed Salem Souid Malanaine, at the hands of the Polisario “police” on the border with Morocco, the man underwent severe torture sessions, according to information collected by the Sahrawi association of defense of human rights (Asadeh).
“The only news we have is that he was tortured at the time of his arrest and taken to a prison called Dahbia in the vicinity of Rabouni and visits are still prohibited as they allege he is under interrogation” , indicates the association.
According to Asadeh, the man who was abducted when he had to drive his family to the Tindouf camps, ” is the nephew of the coordinator of the Saharawi Movement for Peace (MSP), in the region of Dakhla and Río de Oro, Abdallahi Berray”.
The MSP, a dissident political party from the Polisario created in 2020 has become the pet peeve of the militia in control of the Tindouf camps and which presents itself as the “representative of the Sahrawi people”, fearing the end of the single thought as well as of the reign of an armed group known for the worst crimes against humanity since 1976.
Asadedh, which launched the alert about the kidnapping of Mohamed Salem Souid, indicated that it was “anti-corruption activist”which supposes that he stood up against the embezzlement of international aid sent to the Polisario, used to finance the purchase of arms from Iran and to buy properties in Spain and in Latin American countries.
The association also alerted to the complicity of Algeria in this umpteenth kidnapping. The Sahrawi of Spanish origin was kidnapped and detained “under the eyes of the Algerian soldiers at the entrance control of the Algerian city of Tindouf who handed him over to members of the Polisario security after having tried to take refuge in this military post on April 30, 2023”.
In a letter addressed to Jorge de Lucas Cadenas, Consul General of Spain in Oran, Algeria, Asadedh requested consular protection for the victim of the Polisario.
The same letter from the Sahrawi association for the defense of human rights, added that “Faced with these serious events against our defenseless population in the Tindouf camps, we demand the immediate intervention of the Spanish consular authorities to find out where Mohamed Salem is, as well as the solidarity of all civilians, society and organizations that defend human rights “.
“We hold the Polisario leadership and the Algerian authorities responsible for these outrages against our population by committing these despicable acts against defenseless civilians on their territory”, added the association, affirming that the Sahrawis in Algeria live “a new wave of unprecedented repression in the area against opponents of the Polisario Front”.