Spain rejects ex-Algerian gendarme Mohamed Benhalima’s asylum utility and swiftly deports him regardless of considerations raised for his life.
Late final month, Algerian whistleblower and former gendarme Mohamed Benhalima made some bleak predictions for what lay forward of him.
“If I am going again to Algeria, they're going to violate my human rights. Jail and torture await me,” he instructed the native Spanish media outlet Levante EMV whereas detained in a overseas internment camp in Valencia, southeastern Spain.
Days after sounding the alarm and elevating considerations for his life, Benhalima was immediately deported by the Spanish authorities.
On the night of March 24, he was flown again to Algeria, the place he was detained upon arrival.
A video of the second rapidly surfaced and unfold on-line, displaying Benhalima being escorted off the aircraft in handcuffs and transferred right into a automobile by members of the Algerian Analysis and Intervention Brigade.
There was no official affirmation of his whereabouts, however the former gendarme is believed to be held on the Antar detention centre in Ben Aknoun.
Peaceable protests
Benhalima grew to become actively engaged with the Algerian opposition in latest years. In 2019, he joined the Hirak motion, a nationwide wave of peaceable protests that demanded widespread political reform and the removing of navy intervention in nationwide politics.
His involvement within the protests was motivated by his expertise within the Algerian navy, which he joined in 2009.
In 2016, he was transferred to the defence ministry, the place he “started to find the reality concerning the criminals who're in command in Algeria”, as he stated in a video he launched whereas detained in Spain.
Benhalima’s participation within the protests was, unsurprisingly, not effectively acquired amongst his superiors within the navy. He quickly heard that his title was allegedly on an inventory compiled by Algerian authorities detailing the servicemen concerned within the Hirak motion.
He fled to Spain on September 1, 2019, and utilized for political asylum in February 2020.
As soon as overseas, Benhalima grew to become a vocal determine of the Algerian opposition and actively engaged in on-line activism.
He started denouncing and describing corruption he had witnessed within the armed forces by his YouTube, Twitter, and Fb pages, the place he amassed greater than 345,000 followers.
As he gained prominence on-line, he coordinated motion with fellow exiled dissidents similar to Mohamed Larbi Zitout, one of many figureheads of the anti-government Rachad motion, and fellow ex-gendarme-turned-whistleblower Mohamed Abdellah.
Accusations of ‘terrorism’
Because of this, Benhalima acquired two separate sentences in absentia in January and March 2021 to a complete of 20 years in jail.
The January 2021 courtroom verdict handed him a 10-year jail time period for his alleged “participation in a terrorist group”, and the March 2021 courtroom ruling sentenced him to a different 10 years in jail for “publishing pretend information undermining nationwide unity”, based on an Amnesty Worldwide assertion.
Accusations of terrorism from the Algerian authorities have lengthy been taken with a pinch of salt, with Amnesty branding them “bogus”.
“Algerian authorities have but to current credible proof that Benhlima is a terrorist and that he was concerned or was planning violent acts. The authorities have solely thrown broad and obscure accusations that he's a member of Rachad. Algerian authorities have been levelling terrorism accusations in opposition to many peaceable activists and have crushed dissent, which casts doubts over the terrorism cost,” Amna Guellali, Amnesty Worldwide’s deputy regional director for the Center East and North Africa instructed Al Jazeera.
In the middle of his activism, Benhalima was in touch with the opposition group Rachad, which was classed as a “terrorist group” final 12 months by the Algerian authorities.
“It’s a bit reductionist and unfair [of Spain] to deal with everyone who has been engaged with these actions as a risk to nationwide safety. Benhalima’s whistleblowing was instrumentalised, managed and brought benefit of by the Rachad motion. To qualify him as a terrorist goes consistent with the official coverage and couldn't be really consultant of the state of affairs right here,” Zine Ghebouli, an Algerian political analyst, instructed Al Jazeera.
A number of days after he was taken into custody in Algeria, Benhalima made his closing public look up to now – in a televised broadcast the place he confessed to the costs levied in opposition to him.
Questions surrounding the confession and its legitimacy rapidly surfaced amongst opposition circles, primarily prompted by the truth that Benhalima himself had predicted this may occur.
In a video recorded simply two days earlier than his deportation, he warned that such a confessional video would probably be launched, including that if that occurred it might imply he had been “subjected to extreme torture by the hands of intelligence companies”.
Doubtful deportation
Benhalima’s deportation is a close to carbon copy of the case of fellow ex-gendarme-turned-whistleblower Mohamed Abdellah, who was deported from Spain in August 2021. Each circumstances are shrouded in authorized considerations, tenuous allegations and fears of human rights abuses.
On March 14, Benhalima was arrested at a routine police verify in Zaragoza the place he was instructed his request for asylum had been rejected on July 13, 2021, one thing his attorneys claimed he was not conscious of as the choice had not been recorded on the official digital registry.
He was then despatched to the overseas internment camp in Valencia, to await his deportation. Whereas there, Benhalima reapplied for political asylum on March 18.
At 17:35 on March 24, he was instructed his second request for asylum had been unsuccessful. Simply three minutes later, Benhalima was notified of his expulsion order. At 18:41, his authorized staff was knowledgeable of his imminent deportation, and by 19:45 Benhalima was on a direct flight again to Algeria.
Benhalima’s authorized staff described the case as “outrageous”, and denounced the Spanish authorities’s haste.
“The ministry [of interior] has acted despotically as a result of it has tried to avoid the rule of legislation. As a result of precedent set by Abdellah, we knew that the federal government was going to behave rapidly. Not solely that, however manoeuvre to make it as tough as doable to stop the deportation,” Alejandro Gámez Selma, a lawyer dealing with the case, instructed Al Jazeera.
Benhalima’s expulsion order, seen by Al Jazeera, acknowledged that the previous gendarme posed “a risk to Spanish safety”, although his authorized staff have discredited the declare on account of an absence of proof.
His arrest and deportation had been met with sturdy criticism from quite a lot of nationwide and worldwide human rights organisations.
UNHCR letter
The UNHCR even despatched a personal letter to the Spanish authorities, seen by Al Jazeera, urging them to correctly assess Benhalima’s case and guarantee it acquired intensive authorized consideration and due course of. A request that the Spanish authorities seemingly missed.
Amnesty Worldwide additionally denounced the truth that assurances supposedly assured to asylum seekers and people fleeing anticipated torture had been disregarded by Spanish authorities.
“The Spanish authorities confirmed its dedication to forcibly return somebody the place their bodily and psychological integrity was not assured. In doing so, Spain flouted vital worldwide legislation obligations that forbid governments to return people to a rustic the place they'd be at risk of struggling torture,” Amnesty Worldwide stated in a press release.
Like Abdellah earlier than him, Benhalima was not supplied with the customary proper of no return or the interval of voluntary departure, authorized assurances historically supplied to immigrants that enable them better safety and viable alternate options.
Gámez Selma stated the authorized staff had “no hope” that the problem can be resolved positively as soon as Benhalima had been detained, and that their primary goal was that the case be decided in courtroom.
“It definitely isn’t a common administrative process and it denotes a particular curiosity in guaranteeing that the process be executed earlier than it could possibly be submitted to the management of the judges. The query was whether or not the police had been going to have sufficient democratic apply to attend for a choose to resolve whether or not or to not proceed with the deportation. However they determined to ensure their desired consequence,” the lawyer stated.
When requested concerning the authorized considerations surrounding Benhalima’s deportation, a supply on the Spanish inside ministry stated the authorities acted lawfully.
“The expulsion process has been carried out in accordance with the legislation relating to an individual who requested worldwide safety twice and who had it denied in each circumstances, there may be not a lot else to it,” the supply on the ministry instructed Al Jazeera.
The ministry supply didn't elaborate on the human rights considerations surrounding Benhalima’s case.
The Algerian authorities didn't reply to Al Jazeera’s request for remark.
Algerian appeasement
Questions have additionally arisen relating to the timing of Benhalima’s deportation, with considerations that it could have been used as a political transfer to be able to enhance fraught relations between Spain and Algeria.
Tensions heightened final month after Spain angered Algeria by deciding to again Morocco’s declare to the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
“The extradition of Benhalima occurred 5 days after this incident, which may sign that the Spanish authorities nonetheless wish to appease their Algerian counterparts.
“It’s a purely pragmatic alternative in a political means. Until the opposition to those extraditions grew to become extraordinarily current inside Spanish politics, I’m undecided that Spain would change its place as a result of there's a geopolitical curiosity. Relations with Algeria are extraordinarily essential to Madrid,” Ghebouli stated.
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