Paris, 14 July 2026 | The Letter in PDF – English – Espaňol – Français – Arabic
His Excellency Mr. Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón
President of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain
Palacio de la Moncloa
28071 Madrid
Spain
Re: Request that the cases of Mr. Mohamed Abdellah and Mr. Benhalima Mohamed Azzouz be raised during Your Excellency’s forthcoming visit to Algiers
Your Excellency,
We have the honour to address Your Excellency in advance of your forthcoming official visit to Algiers, where you are due to meet Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune. We write to urge you, in the most earnest terms, to use that occasion to raise personally and directly with Mr. Tebboune the cases of Mr. Mohamed Abdellah and Mr. Mohamed Azzouz Benhalima, two Algerian whistleblowers and anti-corruption activists whom Spain expelled to Algeria in 2021 and 2022 respectively, in expedited administrative proceedings that afforded neither man any effective opportunity to challenge the denial of his asylum claim or the order for his removal.
As a State Party to the Convention against Torture, the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights, Spain has long affirmed its commitment to protecting those at risk of persecution. It is in that spirit that we respectfully address Your Excellency today.
Your Excellency will be aware that both men have since reported being tortured – and, in Mr. Benhlima Mohamed Azzouz’s case, sexually abused – following their forced return. Both remain arbitrarily detained in Algeria, held for prolonged periods without access to a lawyer, without contact with their families, and without the basic guarantees that international law requires.
Mr. Abdellah’s wife and children remain in Spain, where their own applications for asylum are still pending. Nearly five years have now passed without a single conversation between Mr. Abdellah and his wife or children. His children have effectively grown up without being able to hear their father’s voice. Mr. Benhalima Mohamed Azzouz for his part, was returned notwithstanding a death sentence imposed upon him in absentia, of which the Spanish authorities were aware before his removal. It is our considered position that these expulsions, carried out within a matter of hours and without effective judicial review, engaged Spain’s responsibility under Article 3 of the Convention against Torture; the matter is accordingly now before the United Nations Committee against Torture.
Your Excellency’s visit presents a rare and direct opportunity to raise these cases at the highest level. We approach you now because developments since the expulsions have rendered Spain’s original assessment of the two men as security threats increasingly difficult to sustain, and because those same developments strengthen both the case and the imperative for your Government to act.
Spain has earned an international reputation as a country committed to the protection of human rights and the rule of law. Addressing these two cases would reaffirm that commitment and demonstrate that acknowledging past mistakes strengthens, rather than weakens, democratic institutions.
First, the Algerian judiciary has itself cleared Mr. Abdellah and Mr. Mohamed Azzouz of the original terrorism-related charges, brought under Article 87 bis of the Algerian Penal Code, upon which Spain relied in substantial part to justify their expulsion. Since then, both men have been kept in detention through a succession of further prosecutions founded largely upon their YouTube and social-media activity – that is, upon the very journalism and whistleblowing that had led them to seek Spain’s protection in the first place. We consider these later cases to be pretextual: a means of keeping two vocal critics of the military and security establishment behind bars once the original terrorism charge could no longer be sustained, rather than the prosecution of any genuine security threat. Such a pattern is consistent with the broader use of vaguely worded “national security” and “terrorism” provisions against peaceful critics and journalists in Algeria, as documented by the United Nations and by international human rights organizations.
Second, several of the officials and networks whose corruption Mr. Abdellah and Mr. Mohamed Azzouz spent years denouncing – within the Algerian military and security apparatus – have themselves since become the subject of arrest, prosecution, or extradition proceedings brought by the Algerian authorities on corruption or related charges. Notably, Ali Yahia Oulhadj, who headed the National Gendarmerie at the time of Mr. Abdellah’s arrest in August 2021, was himself dismissed from that post in April 2025 amid a wider purge of senior security officials on corruption grounds. This development is as significant as it is telling: it corroborates the substance of what the two men were reporting, not the “terrorism” framing that was deployed against them.
Taken together, these developments pose a question that we urge Your Excellency not to leave unasked when you meet President Tebboune: if the premise upon which Mr. Abdellah and Mr. Mohamed Azzouz were expelled – that they were dangerous individuals linked to terrorism – has been rejected by Algeria’s own courts, and if the very officials and networks they had denounced for corruption have since been prosecuted by Algeria itself, then the continued detention of these two men on charges arising from their online speech resembles punishment for dissent far more than it resembles justice. These developments give Spain an opportunity and, we respectfully submit, a responsibility to contribute constructively to addressing the consequences of those decisions.
We therefore respectfully request that, during your visit to Algiers, Your Excellency personally raise the cases of Mr. Mohamed Abdellah and Mr. Benhlima Mohamed Azzouz with Mr. Tebboune, and that you and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation pursue, specifically, the following:
- Raise both cases directly with Mr. Tebboune during the visit, and request a concrete, independent review of the men’s convictions and of the proceedings still pending against them, in the light of the terrorism acquittals already secured and of the pretextual character of the later, social-media-based charges described above;
- Request that the Algerian authorities guarantee both men regular, unimpeded contact with their families and their lawyers, together with full access to independent medical care – including, in Mr. Abdellah’s case, the restoration of contact with his wife and children in Spain, from whom he has now been cut off for nearly five years;
- Call for a prompt, independent, and effective investigation into their allegations of torture and ill-treatment, consistent with Algeria’s own obligations under the Convention against Torture;
- Instruct the Embassy of Spain in Algiers to follow both cases closely, seeking, to the extent permitted, access of a consular character in order to monitor the men’s welfare and the conduct of their trials; and
- Ensure that the judicial reviews now pending in Spain of the original expulsion and asylum-denial decisions are expedited, and that the classified material invoked to designate both men as threats to Spanish security is placed under independent judicial scrutiny, so that any error may be acknowledged and, to the fullest extent possible, repaired.
We are conscious that Spain’s decisions on asylum and removal are taken independently by the competent authorities. We believe, nonetheless, that the gravity of what is at stake – the lives, the safety, and the physical integrity of two men who sought Spain’s protection as whistleblowers – warrants Your Excellency’s direct and personal attention, particularly in advance of Spain’s forthcoming review before the Committee against Torture.
For Mr. Mohamed Abdellah and Mr. Benhlima Mohamed Azzouz, the forthcoming visit may represent one of the very few opportunities for meaningful international intervention. We therefore respectfully hope that Your Excellency will seize this occasion to ensure that their situation is not overlooked.
We would welcome the opportunity to meet with Your Excellency, or with members of your office, to present the full documentation we have compiled on both cases, and we remain at your entire disposal to provide any further information that may be of assistance.
We thank Your Excellency for your attention to this urgent matter and look forward to your response. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of our highest consideration.
Mrs. Assia Guechoud
President, Mohamed Abdellah Association
assia@mohamedabdellah.org
cc:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain
United Nations Committee against Torture
Related video: Un appel à Pedro Sánchez avant son voyage en Algérie
