Brahim Ghali Accused in Brussels of Rape

Rape victim Jadiyetu Mohamed has challenged the Polisario leader Brahim Ghali in the European capital.

During the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) which took place last Thursday, 13 October in the European Parliament, the young Sahrawi Jadiyetu Mohamed (Khadijatou) singled out her rapist Brahim Ghali (Leader of the Polisario separatists) during the hearing entitled “sexual violence and rape as an abuse of power”

His case was presented by Mr. Willy Fautré, president of the NGO HRWF (Human Rights Without Frontiers). He said abuse of power leading to sexual violence and rape can occur in many contexts. Within the family, in the professional context, in a religious context, in the world of sport, in the economic and political world.

M Fautré explored two areas, the abuse of power by political leaders over women leading to rape and also the brutal power over women in times of war. He cited two concrete examples concerning politicians, including Jadiyetu Mohamed who accuses the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, of rape. “She was then 18 years old. She had been invited by an Italian NGO, “Sahara Marathon” to go to Italy. She needed authorization from the Polisario diplomatic representation in Algeria for the first steps before applying for a visa. at the Italian Embassy. Brahim Ghali blackmailed her, she says: a visa in exchange for sex. She refused but was raped. She was told not to make it public because no one would want to never marry her while her brother encouraged her to file a complaint. It took her three years to decide to file a complaint when she was in Spain but the case was closed. “I see that she is in the public and if you need more details, you can ask her” specifies Mr Fautré in his speech to the European Parliament before the MEPs of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equality of Women. gender (FEMM).

Another well-known case is Toufah Jallow, “crowned in a beauty pageant in The Gambia, who was repeatedly raped by former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh. She now lives in Canada and also fights for justice. Human Rights Watch has published an excellent report on the multiple rapes perpetrated by Yahya Jammeh”. Emphasizes in his speech Mrs Fautré.

Before ending his intervention with “The two women will testify in detail this evening at the Press Club Brussels Europe. They will also explain how difficult, if not impossible, it is to obtain justice in their case”.

The young Sahrawi Jadiyetu Mohamed, for her part, recalled in great detail the rape case of which she accuses the leader of the Polisario separatists, Brahim Ghali.

“I was only 18, I was a virgin. Brahim Ghali raped me. It’s the worst thing that can happen to a woman,” Jadiyetu told the Women’s Rights and Equality Commission gender (FEMM).

Her case is not the only one committed against girls in the tindouf camps by officials of the Polisario movement. The criminal organization Polisario, created and financed by Algeria, has repeatedly threatened to commit terrorist acts from the regions of the Moroccan Sahara.

The Polisario remains an organization escaping all control, despite the serious crimes and violations it has committed since its creation. Indeed, the Polisario has made the Tindouf camps a platform to order kidnappings, lootings and arbitrary and terrorist attacks, causing thousands of victims, not only among the residents of the Tindouf camps, but also Mauritania, Mali, South Korea, France, Spain and Morocco. Thus, the Polisario has caused victims following armed land operations or by attacks against boats and ships near the coasts of neighboring countries.

Nearly five decades of violations and inhuman treatment, the most significant of which have been torture and arbitrary executions, have passed in a climate of impunity, where the Algerian redress mechanisms: the only authority responsible for investigating all violations committed on its territory, refused to process or examine any file relating to the violations committed by the Polisario.

The hearing was a great success with the participation also of Ms. Katarzyna KOZLOWSKA, social activist, founder and president of the SayStop Foundation and Dr. Branka ANTIC-STAUBER, collaborator with organizations supporting victims of sexual violence in Bosnia. It was closed by MEP and Vice-President of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) Ms Radka MAXOVÁ.

Toufah Jallow, said during her intervention via zoom during the press conference which took place at the Press Club Brussels Europe this Thursday October 13 that she was raped by the ex-president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh in the age of 18. She said she would like him to know that she exists, that she is there and takes back control of this story, with her own truth.

For her part, Jadiyetu Mohamed, victim of rape by the Secretary General of the Polisario (Brahim Ghali), presented her case to the Press Club Brussels Europe this Thursday, October 13, 2022 alongside Willy FAUTRÉ Founder and Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers and Maître Sophie MICHEZ lawyer at the Brussels Bar.

In her intervention, Jadiyetu explains the facts of what she experienced and what exactly happened on that day in 2010 during her meeting in Algiers with the Secretary General of the Polisario, Brahim Ghali

This happened because I had remained working as a translator in the camps and wanted to be close to my family after so many years.

I wanted to help and collaborate. Unfortunately, they made me pay for it in the most cruel and miserable way imaginable. This is the abuse I suffered at the embassy [of the so-called “SADR”] from Brahim Ghali (the secretary general of the Polisario, who invited me to supposedly talk to him, then m raped her. Then I came back and I denounced her and I find myself with this.

Unfortunately I see justice trampled underfoot. As I have said several times in interviews, I no longer expect divine justice because I no longer believe in justice today. How can a cynic and a rapist travel freely and be allowed to enter a territory like Spain where he is pursued by several victims and NGOs.

It is really cruel on the part of Spanish justice. But I’m still here, fighting. she added.

For her part Me. Sophie Michez, Lawyer at the Brussels Bar, in her intervention recalls that she is not surprised by the facts alleged against Brahim Ghali as well as all the members of this movement (Polisario). Dwelled on her experience as an observer during the so-called Gdeim Izik trial in 2017, highlighting Algeria’s instrumentalization of the issue of common law detainees in Gdeim Izik. Indeed, the charges for which the defendants were prosecuted related to the formation of a gang, the murders of eleven individuals, for having mutilated corpses and for having set fire to public property.

Me. Sophie Michez, moreover, welcomed the procedures that were taken during the trial, which, “contrary to what some allege, confirmed the integrity and correctness of the reference practices”.

In this sense, the speaker declared that what really challenged her at the time was “the disdain for the victims and, even worse, the talent that these different protagonists, under the thumb of the Polisario, to deny the barbarity of the facts for which the Court had been seized”.

Before closing the press conference, M Fautré recalled that sexual rape is more and more demanding.

“It is essential that international bodies take the phenomenon seriously, starting by condemning the perpetrators,” he concluded.