60.000€ For Medical Expenses And 40.000€ For Security… This Is The Cost Of Ghali’s Stay In Spain
Polisario leader Brahim Ghali left Spain for Algeria on Tuesday, June 1. There, he is admitted to a military hospital waiting to fully recover from his Covid-19 infection.
The Spanish newspaper “Okdiario” wrote that Brahim Ghali’s stay in Spain for 44 days cost the Algerian treasury more than 100,000 euros (60,000 euros for medical expenses and 40,000 euros for security staff), without adding the costs of transportation and the costs of the accommodation of the accompanying staff in the hotel.
Ghali arrived in Spain on April 18 on an official Algerian plane which the country uses when a member of the Government must be transferred elsewhere due to health complications. The same source notes that “Polisario leader entered Spain through the Zaragoza military air base, where the Gulfstream IV SP jet that brought him landed.”
Ghali’s stay in Spain has led to a serious diplomatic crisis between Morocco and Spain, but, not only that. Health sources told the Spanish newspaper that the approximate cost of “those 44 days of hospitalization is just over 60,000 euros”, drawn from public accounts.
Okdiario explains that “an ICU for Covid patients costs between 1,400 and 1,500 euros a day”, noting that Covid infections require the use of expensive medications, therefore resulting in an approximate cost of 66,000 euros just in medical expenses.
In addition to the cost of medical care, Ghali’s stay in the hospital has drawn a lot of attention, pushing the Spanish Ministry of the Interior to deploy a large security team to guard the hospital around the clock.
The number of guards was multiplied by Tuesday, the day Ghali appeared, via videoconference, before Judge Santiago Pedraz to account for the various accusations against him. During his statement, “dozens of police officers dressed in plain clothes so as not to raise any suspicions were in the surroundings”, reports the Spanish daily.
Moreover, police sources have confided to Okdiario that providing security for “44 days of Ghali’s stay cost around 40,000 euros only in police security”.