Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

[pic: pinochet, clock ticking.]

That's what you call an unpleasant surprise. Just as prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was wrapping up his visit to Morocco, Spanish media breaks the news that Baltasar Garzón may decide to investigate 31 top-ranking Moroccan security people for various crimes against humanity in Western Sahara. Among them are former regime strongman Driss Basri (now in exile), and present regime strongmen Yassine Mansouri and maj. gen. Hosni Benslimane.

Judge Garzón, if anyone has forgotten, was the man who had the Chilean ex-dictator gen. Augusto Pinochet put under house arrest in Britain, by issuing an arrest order for crimes against Spanish citizens, and demanding his extradition to Spain. The old tyrant protested that he had diplomatic immunity, but to no avail. In the end, he got off the hook only by acting senile, which the British government pretended to believe. Back in Chile, gen. Pinochet miraculously "got better", but couldn't celebrate for too long: from that point on, he was fair game, and the lawsuits started piling up. When he died late last year, some 300 cases were pending. If justice wasn't served in the end, then at least, he died knowing that the people knew. And the situation of others like him, those retired old cold war gentlemen with blood on their hands, had changed dramatically.

Sahrawi victims of the Moroccan army in Western Sahara launched their own complaint before Garzón in September last year, and it is this that the court has now responded to. But very ambiguously so: the court says (contrary to SPS's cheery report) that in order to treat the matter, it'll need more details and precise accusations. So far, a number of Sahrawi and Spanish (and Sahrawi-Spanish) human rights groups have filed information on a total of 542 victims of forced disappearance, most of whom had Spanish identification documents when kidnapped. In total, a massive 1000 pages of text have supposedly been filed, but it's unclear when or if the organizations will be able to provide the requested details. Also, while the Spanish legal system was chewing on the case, Morocco decided to shoot off its own counter-complaint -- upping the bet by sending a pro-monarchy Sahrawi all the way to the International Criminal Court. (No, never mind that the article says International Court of Justice -- the ICJ only accepts cases filed by governments, and while the rulers of Rabat may well want to forget all about it, has already pronounced on the Western Sahara case.) However, this appears to have been just another example of the kingdoms' copycat behaviour to confuse journalists, because Morocco hasn't even joined the ICC.

If the Sahrawi organizations get their act together, literally, and if Judge Garzón takes the case on with his usual energy, it could turn into a serious diplomatic snag for the kingdom's relations with Spain -- not to mention the stress it would cause within the kingdom. Messieurs Benslimane, Mansouri and Basri may even be forced to restrict their holiday plans to non-extraditing countries. Not exactly Carcel Negra, but it's a start.

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UPDATE I: A more detailed post on this can be found on the always excellent Sahara Watch. Read it.
UPDATE II: The case has been accepted by Garzon in Oct. 2007. Story continues here.