National
Western Sahara activist on hunger strike called before a Spanish court
By m.p. - Nov 17, 2009 - 2:36 PM
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Aminatou Haidar during her protest - EFE
Aminatou Haidar faces a charge of causing public disorder at Lanzarote Airport
The Western Sahara human rights activist, Aminatou Haidar, is to appear in court on Wednesday afternoon on a public disorder charge over the hunger strike she is holding at Lanzarote Airport. Hamoudi Isemo Mussa, president of the Sahrawi community on Lanzarote, told EFE that the complaint was placed by the airport’s director, although that has been denied by sources at AENA Spanish Airports.
The source told the news agency that the airport’s director did place a complaint on Sunday over the attitude of ‘a group of people’ who were refusing to leave the airport, but said it was not directed at any one person in particular.
Aminatou Haidar has been at Lanzarote Airport since arriving there on Saturday after she was deported by Morocco for reportedly writing Sahrawi as her nationality on the entry form when she landed at the airport in the disputed territory’s main city, Layooune, last Friday. Her passport was withheld by the Moroccan authorities, and Spain has said she may only leave Spanish territory with a passport.
She began her hunger strike at midnight on Sunday to demand that she be allowed to return to her home in Layooune. Haidar was travelling there after she was awarded the Civil Courage Prize for peace in New York last month.
She’s been holding her protest at the airport by day inside the building, and sleeping outside after the facilities are closed to the public at night. A union representative, José Morales Braun, described her removal from the building by Civil Guard on Monday night as ‘violent’ and ‘disproportionate’.